You Like Pain? Try Wearing a Corset...

Help! September's almost over! Run! Run for your lives!

OK, wait, let's not panic... hang on, let me check the Survival Guide to see what it recommends... okay, let's see... "Rogue Longbowmen"... "Rutabaga Attack" ... "Savage Octopi"... here it is, "September is Ending"... *ahem*

"September is Ending: What to do: Blog, eat chocolate, read a good book into the wee hours and go to sleep. Once September is over, October will begin. All will be well, so chill out, bro. And stop blowing holes in my ship."

Oh. Well, I guess there's no need for panic after all. Nevermind...

So I found the blog stats today, and I noticed something interesting. I had the software chart out the terms you guys all search for on my blog, and it laid it out as one of those word graphics, where the bigger the word is, the more often the term is searched. So let's analyze the results, shall we?


OK, so let's see what this data says about you all... it's an odd mish-mash of disparate terms, but I do detect a scatological pattern. Looks like HG Wells is getting searched, for some reason. Not sure why some of you are searching "St. Vitas' Dance", but there must be a reason. I don't expect you to confess to which terms you guys are searching, but maybe the one that keeps searching "Gollywompers" so frequently can drop me an email and tell me what, exactly, you are hoping to find. And whoever is responsible for "Floater Fetish" should just flat-out be ashamed of yourself... seek some help, seriously...

OK, well, I won't leap to any conclusions about my audience at this point... if I wanted to, I could track the inquiries by IP and see who's up to what, but I think I'll let that go... the data represents a week's worth of searches only... I suppose I could chart it every week and see if a more concrete pattern emerges. Then I could notify the authorities accordingly...


Got that from A Beautiful Revolution, a blog with some very cool, minimalist art... but also frequently not "family friendly", if you catch my drift. Like PostSecrets, there is some cool stuff there, but also stuff better left unimbibed. I won't link to it; if you want to find it, you'll have to google it your own self! Just doing my civic duty, sir...

And now, the fastest, tallest zipline in the world:



This is either madness or brilliance! Yep, it's in South Africa. Have you ridden it before, Havah? :D

I've been trolling for new blogs lately, and have been grabbing one here and one there as the mood hits me. When I find a good one, I'll post it here, but I want to give them some time and make sure they're consistently good and post relatively frequently... I've flagged a few good book-related sites... here is a good one that has passed the "worth mentioning" test...


The Mad Hatter's Bookshelf & Book Review: The site subtitle pretty much says it all... "Book reviews of new, forthcoming and sometimes old fantasy, sci-fi, urban fantasy plus any other book that catches my interest." I enjoy book review websites as much as the next guy, but really, for as many as I've seen, a lot of them start to merge into the same site after a while. They all preview/review the same upcoming and recently-released books, which certainly has it's place... but there are soooo many books that are old(er) that I've yet to read or even hear about, I like hearing about those older gems infinitely more... The Mad Hatter is a good mix, from what I've seen...

Books and music are similar in that regard. People are sooo different, who's to say what's good and what isn't? Take my Top 5 Albums yesterday... as much as I enjoy music, I know I've been exposed to such a pathetically small fraction of what's out there, old and new, how on earth could I in good conscience claim to say "these are the best 5 albums out there!" Logan would beg to differ, I'm sure, and he seems to have a much broader variety of music to draw from. He loves Radiohead... I listened to two of their albums today, and honestly... it strikes me as more "noise" than "music"... it does nothing for me. So who's right? Me or Logan or both or neither?

Books are the same... as many books as I've read, I realize I've only been exposed so such a miniscule amount... recommending books, albums, movies... book review sites. How many times have you read a "highly praised" book only to find that you thought it sucked? Arbitrary, subjective, mood-dependant, crapshoot... but I can't help it, I love books, movies, music... not all treasure is silver and gold, mate...

Ah, nevermind...

Here, lemme post a pretty picture to distract you while I think of what to write next... I feel a change in the wind, says I...


Oooh! A cool doorway! And symbolic of a transition in blog topic! Clever! You know what would be ironic? If I realized I had more book things to discuss! Then it would be, like, you thought we'd shift gears and talk about gerbils or rollercoasters or projectile vomiting, but NOOO! We talk about books again! MUAHAHAH!!!!! If you were waiting for the opportune moment, that was it...

I won a book! I joined a contest at a site called Fiction Addict... they were giving away a copy of a book called Lost Mission by an author named Athol Dickson, and I signed up. Never heard of him before. Looks like I'll have a new book/author to be reviewing soon! Then I can pretend I'm someone important! Schweet! I've never been important before! But I have seen a ship with black sails...

That reminds me... it dawned on me today that I won't be able to review The Well of Ascension when I finish it in the next day or so... how could I review it without including spoilers from Book One? Even something basic and innocuous, like mentioning characters, will let you know who survived the first book and who didn't! So I'll likely remain strangely silent when the time comes... except for the sound of me softly weeping... ah, the heartbreaking sounds of an unrequited book review...

I have nothing else to add. I am done. I am wrung out for the day. Spent. Finished. Daft like Jack.

Now, bring me that horizon! Until tomorrow, remember, I'll be havin' that dress back before ye go...

PS Havah has won the September Movie Quote Contest! Which is pretty much why I did such obvious movie quotes in tonight's post, from one of my fave films. I'll definitely be more challenging starting October 1... I hope everyone participates! Otherwise I'll cry like a schoolgirl...