Fated (Alex Verus #1)

Published on March 10, 2012 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

A mage in our modern times holds a wizardly day job in a big city. He is not in good standing with the wizarding council, and distrusts almost everything they do. He has a tragic past involving betrayal by a mentor figure. Who am I talking about?
Those who have known me since my discovery in 2009 of Jim Butcher, be shocked and amazed, for it is not Harry Dresden of whom I speak! Lo, I have discovered Alexander Verus and the book Fated!
So, there’s this new urban fantasy series, penned by a Playgrounder who I know as Saph but I guess is actually Benedict Jacka, and I have just finished reading the first book. And you, my lucky blog readers, all 1 of you (hi sweetie!) get to read my opinion of it, filtered through my obsession with the Dresden Files.
Alexander Verus is a mage who runs a magic shop in London. He is a diviner, a probability mage, a seer of the future. And he’s pretty dang good at it. He has this friend named Luna, who is cursed (I knoooooooow but it’s ok, it’s not like that at all), and another friend named Starbreeze, who is an air elemental. Luna delivers to him a mysterious item, which sets off the plot. There is drama from the Council, dark mages and light mages are sniping at each other. No one likes Verus very much and he of course ends up in the middle of a massive conflict during which he has to confront his dark and tortured past.

The unique thing about Verus that stands him apart from the mages in this book and in the other books, is his power. It’s almost entirely useless in battle. Unlike Harry Dresden, Verus does not storm in and set fire to everything. He can see the future. He can see ALL of the futures, and by determining the one he likes best he can follow the steps to get there. It’s a neat power, and I’m sure Dresden would be intimidated by that. No really, I’m sure:
“Harry Dresden would like Alex Verus tremendously – and be a little nervous around him.” – Jim Butcher
That quote is on the cover of the book, which I do not have because I have an e-reader. JIM BUTCHER LIKES THIS BOOK, GUYS, AND YOU SHOULD TOO! I did!
There were two things that pulled me out of this book while I was reading it. The first was some parallels between this guy and Dominic Deegan. Verus is what Dominic Deegan was at the very beginning, when the comic was competent. Like early Dominic, his battle strength comes from magic items and his ability to see what his opponent would do. UNlike Dominic, Verus doesn’t grow random powers at the whim of the plot. And Verus’ cursed girlfriend is actually an interesting character with an interesting curse.
The second disruptive thing was very small, and possibly only noticeable by someone like me who remembers details from stories, but there is a sentence in the book that comes right out of another source I won’t name. It surprised me, and completely broke the flow of the book by making me think “Wait, I’ve heard that before… What is it from? Oh… is that a deliberate reference? Is that allowed?” However it happened, it distracted me, but I don’t think anyone else noticed.

The book hits a lot of cliches, with the tragic past and the wizard council and all that, but that’s a good thing. Things wouldn’t become cliched if they didn’t work and work well, and if I didn’t want to read urban fantasy cliches I wouldn’t read urban fantasy! It’s not a book-of-the-year winner, it didn’t blow me over with literary excellence, but it captivated me while I read it. Once the action started, once I stopped being picky, I felt involved in the characters’ situations and wanted the good guys to win. I stayed up until 1 AM reading it, and once I forced myself to put it down my head kept spinning about it and the characters featured in my dreams. And then I woke up and finished it in another 2 hours.
That’s the most important thing for me in a book, that I finish once I start. I don’t finish a lot of books because I like my books to be easily devoured. That’s what this book is, it’s delightfully digestible!
Time for dinner I think.
Fated is good. It is of Storm Front quality. It is a good start to what could become an excellent series. I liked it, if you like Harry Dresden you’ll like this book. Here’s the website, and here’s a conversation between Benedict Jacka and Jim Butcher.

I GIF’d again.

Published on November 19, 2011 in Iron Avatarist and Needlework. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Always and eternal, the satisfaction of making an oots-style animation with Inkscape and GIMP. These have been entered in the last few Iron Avatarists.

The Marx Brothers are fantastic classic cinema, and you should watch them. This emulates the opening of Monkey Business.

Cats have it so easy. Find string, play with string, string goes away, nap, dream of string. This GIF isn’t that popular on my popularity-judging-site (DeviantArt) but it’s one of my favorites because it actually has a narrative.

And here’s my latest. The new contest is “Man vs. Machine”. So I could either go for Terminator, or I could go for the dangers of mundane objects. I made this into a movie trailer, it just seemed to work better this way.

 

As for my November Challenge, I’m working on it. Having a full time job is kind of time consuming. =(

Nafipromo (National finishing projects month)

Published on November 6, 2011 in Needlework. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

So, November is for many people Nanowrimo, National Novel Writing Month. I have no ideas or plans to write a novel, but I’m nonetheless using this month productively. I have a tendency to have an idea, think it’s the best idea ever, abandon all other projects to pursue this idea and then abandon the project when I decide it’s too much work. You know that, you’ve been around. NO LONGER. This November, I am going to finish several projects. I’m going to make all of the things I’ve said I’ll make. And I’m going to blog about each one of them. Starting today!

Ever since making that dice bag for my boyfriend a year ago, I’ve thought that making bags was a good way of the future for me. It’s nice to have a canvass that’s not flat. So as part of my new initiative to complete something, I made another drawstring bag yesterday, and I rather like how it turned out.

I used this guide to determine how to make a round bottom. I wanted to decorate the drawstring with dice, as I did back here with can tabs, and thought that sort of thing would work better on a rounder bag. I didn’t make a lining, which I should have done. The bottom is not perfect, but it widens out the bag so it doesn’t lie flat like the others I’ve made. It will hold more.

 

I chose to use grommets instead of having the string run through the bag’s lining, which makes it much easier to alternate holes and hang beads. Unfortunately I made the bag too small. There are only 8 grommets, meaning I could only use 4 dice.

But, I got to use a drill and turn some dice into beads! Did you know that it’s quite difficult to drill through a D4 and have it not shatter and/or melt? Here’s a pic of my first attempt.

Hilarious! I chose to use different colored dice instead of from all the same set. I think it looks better. I hung the D20 on the final string, it is used to close the bag. Tah-dah, finished product!

It’s far from perfect. Were I to do this again, I would make the bag bigger and I would make a lining for it. For a first try, though, I think it turned out well. And that’s one best idea ever to strike off my list! I may put this bag up for sale despite its imperfections.
My day job may make it hard to blog every weekend, but I’m going to try and finish a project a week. You guys will hear about it. Thanks for reading!

August Iron Avatarist

Published on August 20, 2011 in Iron Avatarist. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Who wants to see what I made? No one? OH WELL!
I shared these on Twitter, but I’ll post them here as well. The theme this month is Russian Reversal. You know, “In America, you X Y. In Soviet Russia, Y Xs YOU!”

So, first.
In America, you kick ass. In Soviet Russia, ass kicks you!

Which was really just a set up for some pandering.
In America, you judge IA entries. In Soviet Russia, IA entries judge you!

Finally, I wanted something for the OOTS category.
In Soviet OOTS, Obvious Attack, bitch!

Not my best gif, but it gets the point across.

So those are my entries. Just thought I’d share!

Thoughts and Reviews.

Published on August 9, 2011 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

I just came back from a trip to the Outer Banks, North Carolina. Lovely place, good vacation, not that much sunburn.
I’ve promised my opinion on A Game of Thrones. And some other stuff came out this summer that I want to offer my thoughts on. Namely They Might Be Giant’s new album Join Us, and the new book in the Dresden Files, Ghost Story.

A Game of Thrones
So, this book was ok. It got good. There were some awesome battles, and I was genuinely curious, sometimes worried, about what will happen to the characters. Not all of them, there are SO MANY EFFING CHARACTERS. I still like Tyrion, Jon and Arya best. I’ve heard though that if I like a character, that character is going to die. This news makes me nervous. I don’t like being depressed by what I read, and if the most tolerable chapters of these books vanish I’m not sure what will keep me going.
The novel was well-written, of course, and the pacing was better at the end. For that reason I’m no longer dreading reading the other 4 books. I’m halfway through the prologue of A Clash of Kings (introducing new characters, seriously, more freaking names to worry about.) I think I’ll take a break and watch the HBO series before I continue. My reading of A Clash of Kings got diverted by

Ghost Story (spoilers)
Ah, The Dresden Files. So addictive, it was satisfying to get another fix. Unlike Changes, Ghost Story didn’t leave me hating Jim Butcher. I wasn’t chomping at the bit for more. This book was lacking a lot though. It felt like the flashback episode of a TV show. It’s a character growth book. Ok, now a spoiler for Changes but one you would have learned by reading the blurb on the back of Ghost Story: Harry is a ghost, having been murdered at the very end of the last book. He’s on a spiritual journey without any magic, though he solves that problem with surprising ease. We learn a bit about Harry’s past, and Harry learns about the consequences of his actions. At the end he’s wiser, he knows he has to consider his choices carefully instead of plowing straight ahead with a bad plan. With great power comes great responsibility, basically. I’m surprised he didn’t use that pop culture reference.
The pop culture references are thick in this book, and sometimes they come completely out of nowhere. They’re hilarious though, if you find that kind of thing funny, and I do. The biggest problem with this book is the ending is such a cop out. The villain isn’t disappointing, but the resolution is completely out of nowhere.
Ok, not his murderer so much. That was a surprise. At the end of the book, we’ve learned a lot about Harry and about how his friends are dealing with his death, and how his actions have severe consequences and he needs to think a little. But this book could have been skipped entirely. Nothing’s changed at the end except Harry’s outlook.
I wouldn’t advise skipping it entirely, it’s well-written and enjoyable and intense, definitely a good read. And fast too, like all of the Dresden books. If you haven’t read the rest of the series, don’t start with this one.

And now for something completely different. Music!
Join Us

Can’t Keep Johnny Down

Above is the single from TMBG’s 15th studio album, and their first album for adults since The Else in 2007. And WOW! I love it. It has such a classic They Might Be Giants sound, unlike The Else. They skipped the accordion entirely on The Else, which was a huge mistake. Join Us is awesome. It even has an awesome album cover, a pink hearse on monster truck wheels, I got a t-shirt of it.
It is 18 tracks long, and it’s almost like a reaction to their joint career of albums geared towards kids. They’ve said in interviews that it wasn’t planned as such. But it is a whiny album with a lot of mean, jerkish lyrics and themes. Can’t Keep Johnny Down is a “song of defiance. It’s an incredibly catchy song. That’s a very nice, bittersweet concoction of a very bitchy lyric with an incredibly sunny arrangement. The guy in the song is a complete and utter asshole and the song is in the perspective of [him].” – John Flansburgh in a Spinner.com interview

It’s not the only song with bitchy lyrics. Cloisonné features a guy telling a singing raindrop (how incredibly TMBG) to mind his business, and shut his god forsaken mouth. There’s a song entitled When Will You Die with the lyric “We’ll be lining up and buying tickets and then we’ll be jumping up and down on your grave.” That’s one of the milder lyrics in that song. Celebration seems to be about Anonymous, of all things. “Perpetrators of invisible crimes, Our only magistrate sits in our minds, The audience cheers as some people attack, The secret smile of security guards”.
You can find these songs on Youtube I’m sure. It’s a fantastic album. It reminds me of John Henry, the underrated 1994 album with Snail Shell on it. Except I don’t think this album will be underrated.

So, there’s some ramblings about some media I’m devouring this summer. Today came out another book for me to read, The Magician King, Lev Grossman’s sequel to 2009′s The Magicians. A chapter in, it has that same sort of disillusioned urbanish fantasy quality that the first had. If you enjoyed the first, well, I guess I’ll find out if you’ll like the second. I might even tell you about it!

Too lazy.

Published on June 20, 2011 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

I was going to use Game of Thrones as an excuse to blog more, but to be honest it just got interesting (Bran was thrown off a building, Ned’s gone with the King, half of the Starks remained behind at Winterfell including Ned’s wife because of Bran’s injury, the King is up to something nefarious, John Snow and my new favorite character Tyrion Lannister have joined the Watch) and I don’t feel like stopping after every chapter. Tell you what. I’ll come back and blog about my thoughts at the end of the book. Or at the middle, if for some reason it gets stupid again and I need to rant about it.
HEY, REMEMBER WHEN THIS BLOG HAD PICTURES OF MY NEEDLEWORK THINGS? Well, I made something. For my cousin’s birthday, I made her a bag to help her collect can tabs.

I made it on a whim, so it’s a little messy. A little skinny too, and the ribbon doesn’t work very well as a drawstring. BUT, it holds things. My cousin seemed to like it.
There is nothing, NOTHING, that will transfer a drawing to green linen. I try and try and try, I buy new product after product, everything fails. I will complete my secret project, dang it. If I can’t figure out anything, I will make it on white linen as is my usual default.
My computer’s kaputt, so I’m unable to make Iron Avatarist entries. Which sucks, because this month’s theme would be a good one. Someday I’ll be able to draw again.
I guess that’s all I have to say right now. I’d make a vague promise to post more often, but we know how that works. Seems some people are retaking ds106, maybe I’ll steal some of those projects again, but since my art tools have been destroyed and my motivation to do ds106 (Tempy) is no longer taking the class, probably not.

A Game Of Thrones: First Thoughts.

Published on June 9, 2011 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

I’m reading the first book now, I’ve gotten through a few chapters.
Thick, flowery fantasy writing. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
The book opens with some members of the Night’s Watch. Some people have been killed mysteriously. This Will fellow seems smart. Royce is laughing at him, so he’s going to die. Gared is old and experienced.
The Other (not that one) is killing people in the forest. Ser Waymar (is that Royce? Oh, yes it is.) is in a sword fight with The Other. This is a dull fight scene. Perhaps I’m too used to Butcher’s fast-paced fights. The only description is of the sound of their swords clashing, and of the color of the swords. “A flurry of blows drove him back” isn’t a very engaging way to describe a fight. “Again and again their swords met.” I want fights to be cleverer than this. That’s not the point, though. The strangeness of The Other is the point. I’m just not getting such a sense of “this guy is freaking dangerous” that I think I need. I’m getting “What is this? This is weird. Oh dear, Royce is dead. That was weird.” And now Will’s been strangled. Ok, the Other’s a supernatural threat to the kingdom.
Gared’s being executed for deserting the Watch.
Aw, puppies!
I like the Starks. I think I’m supposed to like the Starks. There isn’t a Tony Stark, which is sad. Eddard could probably build something in a cave with a box of scraps. But I doubt he could build a particle accelerator in his basement.
So, Eddard Stark is friends with King Robert. They were raised by the same guy, who has died. They took over the throne from this Targaryen fellow.
Viserys and his sister (I think? The book says siblings, the wiki throws in a family tree that confuses me. Freaking fantasy novels. Oh wait, here’s a tree that confirms they’re siblings.) Daenerys are bumming around. Viserys is angry ’cause they were usurped, Dany was too young to know what’s what. Actually, she wasn’t born yet. Viserys is the beggar king. He is evil, I know this because he’s played by Son Of Mine from the Doctor Who episode Family of Blood.
Evil.
Evil Evil Evil. He’s marrying his 13-year-old sister off to a barbarian warlord king guy named Khal Drogo. Viserys wants Drogo’s armies backing him up when he takes on the Usurper, King Robert. Dany is afraid of her brother’s anger problems. Anger problems are another sign of evil.
King Robert has made Eddard his right hand man. Which is bad for Eddard, because “the king eats, the Hand takes the shit.”
And that is where I am. Now I’ve reached the part where I stopped before, everyone is arriving at a party. I will not stop, I will continue. And I will post more.
This book is doing the thing that fantasy books do. Instead of dropping me into action, I’m being introduced to the characters and their backstory. It’s not precisely clear who I should like and who I should dislike, because Creepy “Viserys” McCreeperson kind of has a point. I don’t know yet what the Targaryens did to get usurped, there was some vague talk of them being “tyrants” coming from Robert. I’m pretty sure the Starks are the good guys, because they’re nice to puppies, and because they say things like “you can only be brave when you’re afraid.” I’m not so sure about Robert though. He has this sort of “You’re my friend, BUT” air about him.
As I was saying, there’s no action yet, except the slow, boring fight scene with the Other at the beginning of the book. It’s all talking, and families, and politics. I’m just waiting for someone to be thrown off a building.

Oh wow, a post, how about that?

Published on May 29, 2011 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

My God.

I’ve been making more animated gifs lately, thought I’d share some with you.

Last semester when we watched Twin Peaks, I wanted a gif of Dale Cooper giving a thumbs up. I decided it would be better to make a gif of him giving a thumbs up while on the floor bleeding after being shot. This gif could be used to indicate reluctant approval of something.

animated gif,dale cooper,twin peaks,thumbs up,shot,second season,room service

I cannot stop giggling at this one. This is kind of a story. This is one of my sister’s friends. Basically, he was dared to break this plate, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not do it. A headbutt is no match for 1970s stoneware.
Photobucket
My sister later broke the same plate by hitting it with another plate.

So, I’m not dead. I am, in fact, graduated. I have a job. It’s pretty great. I need to get back into blogging. I have an idea for a series of posts, I don’t know if you would be interested, but I want to try a Let’s Read. It’s like a Let’s Play, but instead of playing a video game, I read a book and post once every chapter or two and give my impressions on how the book is going. Everyone’s told me to try and read A Game Of Thrones, and I think I’ll give it a shot again. Last time I tried, I wasn’t able to keep reading, but perhaps if I blog about it I’ll be more motivated to finish. Don’t know if you all’d want to read something like that, but I haven’t posted in months. Obviously readers are not important to me. =P
No, you are great. If all goes well, I’ll post again soon.

Hero’s Journey Part 7: History Lesson

Published on April 7, 2011 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Ah, this is quite textful. Because it’s ridiculously wall-of-text, I believe I’ll color the dialog for you. Follows on from Tempy’s Part 6. If you haven’t read the story yet, start at Part 1.

Light Well Photo by nickehret

The black bird lay on its side, glaring at us from inside the net of flowers. Its gaze was disturbing. I could tell that it was memorizing our faces. When it got free, it would remember us. It would tell its family. They would come after us. They would never forget that we had wronged them.
“Oh shut up.” said my sister. Though the bird hadn’t spoken, its stare must have communicated the bird’s true thoughts to both of us. My sister looked at me. “We’ll have to take it with us, and prevent it from escaping.”
“That’s great. Where are we going again?”
“To the silver well. We must use it to travel to the other side of the world!”
“Right. To get the cure for our mother.”
The silver birds that had escaped the black bird began to gather again in the trees around us. They began to sing their song. Not wanting to waste any more time weeping, I pulled my sister and the black bird out of the clearing.
My sister did not want to leave the clearing. As soon as we left the circle of song, she stamped her foot and said “No, we have to go the other way!”
“Fine.” I responded, and led her by the hand around the clearing rather than back through it. “How do you know this is the right way?”
“The birds told me.”
I looked at the black bird, recalling the way it had communicated with us, and decided it was perfectly possible that the birds had indeed told my sister where to go. The black bird looked back at me, and continued projecting hate-filled words. I could understand its discomfort at being dragged across the ground in a net of flowers. I told it “If we come up with a better way to contain you, we’ll take it.”
This time, the bird actually opened its beak to speak. “Set me free of this net and I will remain with you. I can’t disobey a knight of the Sacred Well.”
“I’m not a knight of the Sacred Well. I’m just wearing his armor.”
“You are as good as a knight, then. The armor empowers them. It contains the essence of the Well itself. It should protect you fromthe wards surrounding the Silver Well, and strengthen you when you fight against their knights.”
“Fighting? Are we going into a battle?” I glanced ahead at my sister. She was skipping, humming the birds’ song, still much younger and more innocent than she’d been when we left our home.
The bird looked at me like I was an idiot. “You wear their armor, and you don’t know a shred of history. This may take a while.
The two Wells connect this world to yours. The Sacred Well is called such because it is out of that well that the first Knights came. A few men in armor, carrying a message to a neighboring kingdom, were blinded by a great light and found their way to this world through a well. They found this forest filled with light, and music, and animals. They sent a message back up the well using a silver bird, and more knights joined them. Silver birds are the only creatures who can travel back up the well. The knights found themselves trapped here, and some of them went slightly mad. Some were able to harness the magic of this world, present in the light, and the sounds, and the creatures. They crafted the armor you are wearing.
The discovery of the Silver Well and a gateway to the other side of the world changed everything. Finally able to reach the other side of the world, they invaded, and a great war began. The main battleground is beyond the Silver Well, where I presume soldiers are still fighting. A quieter war between two factions wages here, the sides named after the two portals, the Sacred and the Silver. Each has guarded their own Well from the others successfully for years. This world would be a quick shortcut for an army if either side could capture the other’s Well. This world would also be destroyed.
Approach the Silver Well in the armor of a Sacred Knight, and you will be attacked. Your armor should prevent the worst their magic could do.”
I looked at the armor I was wearing. Now that I realized that it contained magic, I could feel the power in it. I let its history sink in for a few minutes. “I’m going to have to participate in a war to save my mother.”
“I’d be able to help. I’ve some experience with the other side of the world, I could possibly help you avoid it altogether.”
“You said you couldn’t disobey a Sacred Knight. Why would you, a creature of this place, ally yourself with one army over another?”
“Set me free and I’ll show you.”
He said it so sincerely. And he had been so informative. I took a leap and trusted him. I attempted to rip the net of flowers apart, but they were as strong as a thick rope. I took out my knife and cut through them. The large black bird fluttered his wings and stood straight. He used his beak to straighten his feathers out. I waited.

Well, I suppose once Jim Groom posts about it

Published on March 29, 2011 in Uncategorized. 5 Comments Tags: .

I can’t do anything but blog about it myself. After all, it’s my own work!

So, yesterday I was thinking about Terry Gilliam, the guy who did the animations for Monty Python. Since I’m getting my BA in German with a minor in procrastination, I decided to take my new favorite photo for chopping up, and make a simple animation.

There is another part of this I am currently working on, which is actually why I hadn’t blogged about it yet. I’ll edit it into this post when it’s complete. =)