Saturday, October 29, 2011

Halloween Nonsense and Other Important Stuff

That... is an incredible picture. Saw that yesterday (as I'm sure many of you did as well; it was everywhere) and knew I had to post it here. Click it to see a nice high-res version. Mt Ranier casting a sunrise shadow on the clouds.

Anyways, hello, y'all. Wasn't going to post today, but I've collected a good amount of Halloween-related nonsense and I'm running out of time to post it! The day is almost upon us! What's a Dave to do!? You know how flighty we Daves are... but we have our redeeming qualities as well. We may be unreliable, and smell odd, and often take forever making camp videos, but hey, at least we think farts are funny, and we stop at every Starbucks we see! So, Dave's are cool. In fact, maybe you should dress up as a Dave for Halloween this year... the costume is easy. Just carry an iPad in one hand, a Caramel macchiato in the other, and wear the same pair of jeans 10 days in a row. You'll be great.

Anyway, here's a couple jack-o-lantern related items for you...


Um... yeah... it's a little weird, admittedly... but you can't second-guess the carving skills. Pretty cool...

Here's another funny one...


Yes, I really did just post a lolcat photo on my blog. Some might consider that a new low for this blog, but I don't care. You need the lows every now and then, so you can better appreciate the highs. I realize that this week's blog donations will likely take a hit because of it... but I shall assume your previous generosity will see me through the post-lolcat lull. The holidays approach, so I'm sure that will reinvigorate your giving.

Here's a video of pumpkins being smashed in both slow-motion and reverse slow-motion. What more can one ask for in a Halloween-theme blog post?



It's pretty cool full screen, you know... you could have clicked it full screen, if you wanted to... you could have, you know.

OK, fine, here's a cool Haunted House made of legos I saw on Geekology...


It took the creator 600 hours to build. 600 hours!?!?! Holy mackerel! That's almost as long as it takes me to finally get around to working on my novel! Cleck here to see the article. Or you could click it even. Click or cleck, whatever. We Daves sometimes leave typos, just to be hip and trendy...

OK, fine, enough Halloween nonsense...

The memorial service for Dr. Diane McIntosh was today. As usual, I was ensconced in the Upper Room, video-recording the proceedings. It was moving, as was to be expected. I was especially moved by what was shared by Diane's husband, Wayne. He was so open and raw, I was amazed. It struck me that what he shared was the type of unfettered emotional reality that one usually reserves for those closest to you, safely squirreled away in the confines of one's home... not in front of a church-full of people that range from family to acquaintance to stranger. It was like he shared treasure with us; I was humbled and touched. I told him so afterwards; he seemed legitimately surprised to hear such a thing.

Anyway, I better change the subject before I get all weepy. Yeah, we Daves are soft like that. We want to be stronger (which is why we read books like Gates of Fire), but really, we're just big teddy bears. Yes, I said "big"! Hey, look at these biceps! (Dave flexes his guns) See?

Yay! There's a new video out from World Order!



There's something undeniably cool about these chaps.

On an unrelated note: HELP! I keep buying games from Steam! What is wrong with me! HEEELPP!! Their Christmas sales haven't even started yet, and already I'm adding games to my library at an alarming pace! Want to know how I justify it? I say, "Hey, if I can get 4 full games for $5, then it should be no problem getting $5 worth of enjoyment out of at least one of them! It's cheaper than going to a movie! And I could end up playing each game for many hours! It's not like I'm spending $50 or $60 each game!"

Yeah, I know, weak argument. There's an embarrassingly large number of games in my library that I have still not played.

Yeah, I've discussed this before, I know. I'll stop talking about it and move on...


I watched a Japanese movie the other night called 13 Assassins on NetFlix. Not sure why I'm bringing it up, since I know none of you will ever see it, or have even heard of it, nor did I even particularly like it, or would I recommend it! So why did I bring it up!?!?! Well, to be difficult, that's why! (Holy crap! It got 95% on Rotten Tomatoes! I guess a lot of people dug it!)

I did finally watch Life In A Day last night... for free, on YouTube! Yes, it was cool. The film is the result of a worldwide project, whereby random people from all over the world recorded what they did on a certain day (July 24, 2009) and posted the footage to YouTube, submitting the link to the filmmakers. They collected 4,500 hours of footage, culled through it, and made a documentary of the results. It is quite inspiring and fascinating, actually, as I'd hoped it would be. CLICK HERE to go to the YouTube page and watch it. If you have 90 minutes to kill, that is...

Well, what can I say? I started a new post and this is what came out! If you made it this far, you have both my appreciation and my congratulations. I'll have more nonsense for you soon. My archive is busting at the seams.

Dave the Common

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Gates of Fire, by Steven Pressfield: A Review


I have read many great books in my time, in many genres. Trying to define "great" is not as easy as it sounds, since many of the books I feel are truly great are quite different -- in content, in presentation, in style, in delivery, in feel. I'd like to think my ability to recognize and appreciate great writing transcends my own unique set of preferences... meaning, I may not like the story or the subject matter, but that should take nothing away from my ability to acknowledge the author's skill set. Contrariwise, I'd also like to think that just because I connect with the story/subject matter as thoroughly as a person can possibly do such, it still wouldn't color my ability to objectively comment on the writing, the story, the author's ability to navigate the page and/or the reader's heart.

All that to say, prepare for a glowing review. How objective it is remains to be seen.

I'll summarize this review now, for those that lack the patience to wade through this post. This book is the best book I've ever read, period, for many reasons, which I will attempt to elucidate upon in the following paragraphs. This is technically the third time I've read this book, and it is an example I can, with clear conscience and without exaggeration, point to as that rare book that truly does improve with subsequent readings.

Gates of Fire, by the amazing Steven Pressfield, is a dramatic re-telling of the Spartan stand against the Persian invaders of King Xerxes in the Battle of Thermopylae in about 480 BC. Spartan King Leonidas, along with 300 hand-picked Spartan warriors and their squires and helots, were joined by a mix of Greek warriors from different surrounding regions, coming together to try and plug the narrow mountain pass called Thermopylae (aka, The Hot Gates or Gates of Fire), which was the only road Xerxes could use to move his armies into Greece, to conquer and enslave the country (as he had everywhere else he went).

At this point, if you could do me a favor and drive all thought of the 2006 comic-book movie "300" from your mind, it would help. Though this book tells the same basic tale, the hyper-stylized, heavily-embellished and outright odd movie should not color your willingness to pick up this book. Different beast altogether. I placed a screenshot from the movie at the top of this post only because I could not find a better shot of a Spartan phalanx.

In the book, a single man, named Xeones, has barely survived the famous last stand, being pulled from the rubble in the immediate aftermath, with grievous wounds. King Xerxes immediately orders his best surgeons to tend to him, in the hopes that this man could survive and satiate the King's thirst for knowledge about these men who withstood his innumerable forces for three full days, specifically this core of Spartans that proved so impossibly resilient. Who were these warriors? The Persian King, who had witnessed the entirety of the three-day battle from a safe nearby vantage point, initially supremely confident that his forces would roll through the pass without much problem, was stunned to see his forces, including some of his very best, decimated by such a small force, to the tune of 20,000+ men. When all was said and done, the narrow mountain pass was a hellish slaughterhouse, the rock-hard earth transformed into knee-deep mud by the spilled blood.

Xeones, himself a helot (slave, if you will) to a Spartan captain named Dienekes, survives long enough to relay to King Xerxes' chief historian the tale of the 300 and their suicide mission. This book is that story, as though we have picked up that historian's record from an ancient archive and sat down to give it a reading.

The book works first as a character story. Xeones is merely the first of many people the reader meets, and, if the reader is anything like me, will form a deep bond with - a bond made more bittersweet by the fact that the final outcome for most of these characters is known to us before we even crack the book open. You know these 300 will die - it hangs over your head each page, like a guillotine blade. If the characters were shallow and/or poorly drawn, their sacrifice would mean little. But because they were crafted with such expert care, their imminent demise manifests itself, as the book progresses, in an increasing tightness in the belly. This is especially nefarious, since the book is so hard to put down. You are hooked and drawn forward.

The book works as a history lesson. Some people (like me) are fascinated by certain segments of history. My fascination seems to orbit around military history - odd, since I was never in the military, though I hold in highest respect those that are/were. World War II is a big topic with me, but wars more modern and more ancient also snag both my attention and my imagination. What fascinates me about ancient warfare, as much as anything else, are the weapons/armor and tactics/strategies employed. Shooting someone from distance with a rifle is one thing; gutting someone with a xiphos or overhand-thrusting an eight-foot spear into somebody's chest is something else entirely. Or is it?

The history lesson goes beyond merely the in-depth study of the Spartan lifestyle and training. It drives home, albeit with subtlety, the fact that the ultimate triumph of Greece over the invading Persian King led directly to the birth of democracy, which has direct implications on our (U.S.) society today, for obvious reasons.

The book works as an action-adventure. The inexorable pace of the tale is constant, even with the frequent trips back in time to Xeones' childhood, and the road he took in his early years that led him to Lakedaemon, into the often-brutal service of the Spartan army. It builds like a juggernaut, until all you can do is grab hold of the book covers and hold on for dear life, clinging to the impossible hope that at least one of these incredible characters will somehow miraculously survive, knowing that they won't. The ridiculously vivid battle descriptions are a wonder to read, especially seeing the way the Spartans trained (and why), and how it translated onto the battlefield. But the interactions between the characters as they move towards their destinies are equally captivating and, surprisingly, in many places, very funny.

The book works as literature. To me, this book is art. The vocabulary and sentence construction in this book represent the best of my experience. To say Pressfield "has a way with words" would be to so understate as to be insulting. His sentences are a joy to eat - so much so that one could pull entire monologues out of his pages, as is, and perform them onstage, to great effect. In fact, I believe an example is in order.

King Leonidas stands before his assembled 300 Spartans as they are about to depart on the hard march to Thermopylae. Assembled around them are not only the rest of the Spartan forces, wishing with everything inside them that they could have been selected to go as well, but also the wives, families, the whole town, gathered to see these heroes off, knowing they will never return. King Leonidas addresses these words to his men.


Death stands close upon us now. Can you feel him, brothers? I do. I am human and I fear him. My eyes cast about for a sight to fortify the heart for that moment when I come to look him in the face.
            Shall I tell you where I find this strength, Friends? In the eyes of our sons in scarlet before us, yes. And in the countenance of their comrades who will follow in battles to come. But more than that, my heart finds courage from these, our women, who watch in tearless silence as we go.
            How many times have these twain stood here in the chill shade of Parnon and watched those they love march out to war? Pyrrho, you have seen grandfathers and father troop away down the Aphetaid, never to return. Alkemene, your eyes have held themselves unweeping as husband and brothers have departed to their deaths. Now here you stand again, with no few others who have borne as much and more, watching sons and grandsons march off to hell.
            Men’s pain is lightly borne and swiftly over. Our wounds are of the flesh, which is nothing; women’s is of the heart – sorrow unending, far more bitter to bear. Learn from them, brothers, from their pain in childbirth which the gods have ordained immutable. Bear witness to that lesson they teach: nothing good in life comes but at a price. Sweetest of all is liberty. This we have chosen and this we pay for. We have embraced the laws of Lykurgus, and they are stern laws. They have schooled us to scorn the life of leisure, which this rich land of ours would bestow upon us if we wished, and instead to enroll ourselves in the academy of discipline and sacrifice. Guided by these laws, our fathers for twenty generations have breathed the blessed air of freedom and have paid the bill in full when it was presented. We, their sons, can do no less.
            In six hundred years, so the poets say, no Spartan woman has beheld the smoke of the enemy’s fires. By Zeus and Eros, by Athena Protectress and Artemis Upright, by the Muses and all the gods and heroes who defend Lakedaemon and by the blood of my own flesh, I swear that our wives and daughters, our sisters and mothers, will not behold those fires now.

How I would love to perform that piece onstage. And it is one of a dozen or more examples I could insert here. 

Lastly, the book works as an unshakable source of inspiration. I cannot help but wonder, as I tasted the final words of this book (for this third reading), whether I have ever had - or will ever have - even a fraction of the steel within me required to stand among such men. And I don't mean the Spartans - I mean all men of this caliber, even today. Men willing to sacrifice everything for what they believe in. Men willing to endure brutal training, to learn hard lessons, to take life's best shot to the teeth, to endure hardness as a good soldier of Christ (if I may wax Biblical for a moment). How can I find and apply this strength, this dedication, this resolve to my own situation? To my own walk with God? To what I believe in and hold most valuable? At the risk of being corny, this book makes me want to be a man, in every sense of that word. The camaraderie on display here is something I wish I could experience, and know I likely never will.

Even though I have gone on at such lengths, espousing a few of what I feel are many legitimate virtues of this book and its author, I must qualify (and risk cheapening) it with this question: Will this book strike you the same way? Will it captivate and decimate, inspire and entertain you the same way? I have no clue. But as for me, it has solidified its place at the top of my Best Books list, and I don't anticipate it being moved for a very long time.

Summary: 5/5 The language and writing alone make this a book worth reading. If the subject matter connects with you as it does for me, you will be exponentially rewarded. My only regret is that I will never again be able to read this book for the first time.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Beware! Uninspired Torpor Ahead!


So a week or so ago, I was returning to work from lunch, as is my custom. I opened the car door, and as usual, had too much stuff to grab up and stand up with... so I grabbed my beloved iPad and reached up, placing it on the roof of my car, thereby freeing up a hand to grab up more of the stuff I needed to take into work with me. I've done this before - I get out, snatch the iPad from the roof, stick it under my arm, and walk in, heavy laden with my stuff...

Only this time, yes, I forgot to grab the iPad. About 90 minutes later, I found myself looking for the thing, and realized, in a flash-fit of sheer panic, that I didn't grab it off my car! I ran outside, stomach in a knot, and there it was, still sitting on my car, in a packed parking lot. It seems nobody wanted to help themselves to a free iPad. Ah, well, their loss, I suppose.

To say I was relieved is an understatement.

Of course, the level of panic I felt over the potential loss of my iPad certainly got me wondering if maybe, perhaps, I'm a bit too attached to the thing... I hesitate to call it an idol, since, in a way, that's admitting sin... but I found I "didn't even want to THINK about" what it would have been like to lose the thing. That also was a red flag. I mean, it's not like there's anything on my iPad that is irreplaceable. I can re-download and re-install all the games, apps, music, books, etc. that are on there, if I needed to, easy peasy. Maybe that wasn't the real issue... perhaps I would merely have been overwhelmed by the feeling of sheer stupidity I would have felt by having been so moronic as to leave an $800 gadget on top of my car for any wandering shmoe to help him/herself to.

I would have felt like this guy...

I wonder what the story is behind this picture..?


OK, enough nonsense. Bottom line, I still have my iDol, so all is well.

Or is it? MUAHAHAHAH!!!!!

So, my Youngest has been losing more teeth. She lost one of her front-top teeth, making a big hole in her smile. The other front-top one was loose as well, so she had great fun for a few days pushing on it with her tongue, slowly forcing it over toward the very middle, so that it looked like she just had one center-top tooth. She called it her "uni-tooth", and she and her sisters had many giggles over it. I was surprised that there seemed so much wiggle room that she could do that with her tooth.

Well, Wednesday night, I came home from work to a very upset 5 year old. Thursday, it turned out, was going to be "school picture day". She was frantically trying to pull the now-stubborn loose uni-tooth out, so she wouldn't look "like a freak" for her school pictures, thus being forever immortalized in the yearbook. We tried to show her how to smile with her mouth closed, but she couldn't seem to smile without flashing that one front tooth. Sure enough, Thursday came, and she came home with her new school ID card. There's the unitooth...

As I write this, it is the next day (Friday). Yep, her unitooth came out tonight. A day late.

Ah, well... makes for a cute story...


Her 6th birthday party is Saturday. It's a costume party, remember. No, I still don't have a costume. At this point, I'll either need to make something that is ridiculously lame and homemade-looking, or dart to the mall and drop $40-$60 on a pre-made costume, which will be equally lame. Neither option is palatable to me. Well, there are certainly far worse problems to have. So I won't sweat it too badly.

We tried to make Mags a wearable cardboard Transformer costume, but without success. Good thing I bought that pre-fabbed one off Amazon. That reminds me, I found out (the hard way) that "2-Day Shipping" is really 4-5 day shipping. Apparently, buying something on the 17th and having it arrive on the 21st still counts as "2-days", because of a nebulous concept called "processing time"... I don't recall the "3 to 5-Day" option taking any longer than 3-to-5 days before... makes me wonder why I paid through the nose for 2-Day...

Man, I am a rambling fool tonight...

We had our first Christmas Play rehearsal tonight at church. Enthusiasm and excitement are high. Hope it lasts. I like the script. We'll see how well I still like it a month from now...

I'm sorry, but you MUST watch this video, hi-res, full screen.


Landscapes: Volume Two from Dustin Farrell on Vimeo.


Breath-taking.

See? See what happens when I don't have anything hilarious and/or interesting to share? See what you get? Tales of teeth, of costumes, of shipping foibles, of play rehearsals... I need to get out more... at least I've still been working out with my wonderfully-sadistic personal trainer. He destroys me. I love it.


See Left Handed Toons for more hilarity.

OK, well, I guess I'll go now. If anything similarly exciting happens, like, say, I find an unmatched sock, or I sweep the front sidewalk, why I'll be sure to post it up here straight away!

Dave the Boring

Monday, October 17, 2011

A Post Full of This and That... (Well, More "This" Than "That", Really)...


It's Fall! Get it? I opened today's post with a seasonal, visual pun-hybrid type of thing! You know, like "don't fall for falling over the falls during Fall!"

OK, fine, that was a stretch. I lean upon your propensity toward quick forgiveness, and I boldly move forward!

Yes, I finished writing the Christmas play. And it turned out well, methinks. I don't want to toot my own horn too loudly here, but I think it's pretty dang funny. Still working on casting - some roles up in the air until I get the "yay/nay" from everyone. Hope to get it soon - our first rehearsal/read-through is this Friday! Yikes! If you want to read the script, let me know and I'll email it to you! Then you can tell me how off my rocker I am. I mean, what other Christmas play in history has ever had Elizabeth putting Mary into a sleeper hold? Sheesh!

(you think I'm kidding...)

Moving right along... here is a Boba Fett viking helmet for you to enjoy...


I get a nerd rush just thinking about something so awesome... if you want to buy one for your Star Wars Memorabilia collection, it will set you back about $250. Click this link to read the Geekology article.

So I finished reading that Brandon Sanderson novella I mentioned in the previous post (called Infinity Blade). It had some nice (funny) dialog, some cool ideas and some great fights. But it didn't really have much depth. I can forgive that. It was a quick, fun read, and is only a couple bucks. Grab it if you can, or if you have an eReader of some kind, email me and I'll loan you the file. Not all eBooks are loanable, but this one is.

It was good enough to inspire me to actually play the Infinity Blade game again on my iPad (after tinkering with it many moons ago). Only the game crashes to iPad desktop now. It won't even launch. Bummer. Hope the next update fixes it. I remember the game being visually impressive. I wanna try it again.

And now, a dude playing "Hall of the Mountain King" on a custom-made 27-string guitar thing. Give it a minute, it starts off slow...



I think it takes a special kind of crazy to bring an idea to fruition like that. Good on ya, mate!

We're trying to make Maggie a "transformers" costume for her party this weekend. Out of painted cardboard. So that when she curls up on the floor, she turns into a truck, like this. Why? Because we are crazy. Her favorite Transformer? Nope, not Octopus Prime... not Bumblebee... her favorite is a GMC truck called Iron Hide ("He's the weapons guy, dad!"). I thought we should just buy her this costume and be done with it ($25 well spent, I think), but she wants a home-made one that will turn into a GMC. I predict it will last about 10 minutes before she removes it and runs off to play. We are going to have oodles of people at her party this Saturday... dang. Better start psyching myself up now. I don't do well with crowds... and crowds in my castle? Hmm...

And now, Mona Lisa with a rocket launcher...

Thanksy Banksy!

I've been getting the creative itch lately. I hope first to funnel it into finishing the camp video (no, it isn't done yet! Sheesh!), and then into the play (as far as acting), but I also want to work on my novels, plus maybe another Wagnervana webcomic. If anything comes of it, I'll let you know here first, since I just KNOW you're dying to see more of my work! Right?

By the way, I bought Titan Quest Gold the other day on Steam for $5 (what a deal!) and have been playing it again. I say that for Dry's sake... Hey Dry, I made it all the way to level 11 on my new Conqueror toon before installing the latest TQVault and dusting all my archived gear off. Then I twinked the heck out of her, and now she's an unstoppable beast. I know, I should have tried to play with just the gear that dropped (or that I could buy from vendors), but I lack the inner resolve to be that disciplined. I like to obliterate my enemies...

I don't know if I've posted this video before (if I have, I apologize), but it's amazing...


Yeah, yet another activity I'd love to be able to do, if I could ever conquer my fear of heights.

OK, fine, I'll stop for now. I have a bunch of other random stuff to unload on you all soon. Oh, you love it and you know it! Quit complaining!

Adios

Dave the Crazed

PS I'm reading Gates of Fire again! Best book ever.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Street Urchins, Old Windbags and Infinity Blades


Nice clouds... reminds me of those warm Summer nights growing up in Bangkok, studying underwater calligraphy with the rest of the orphans and street urchins. Ah, that amazing mix of heady aromas down by the wharf: the smells of hot onion soup, rotting fish and unbridled religious ambition... those were the days...

They weren't my days, but they were somebody's days, perhaps...

My days were spent sorting baseball cards and reading comics, if memory serves. But that's another story... There were a few heady aromas involved as well, but I won't go there...

Greetings, y'all. Dave the Perpetually Scattered here, with another quick blast of literary hot air. One day I'll write something of substance here... one day...

I've been wrestling with this year's Christmas script the past few nights. I came up with (what I believe to be) a fitting sub-plot to weave into the play, plus some (hopefully) good ideas for a few additional scenes. At first, I was actually fearful that it wouldn't come together right, but I've got some good momentum going now, and I'm feeling good about it. Of course, it remains to be seen whether the script will be too ambitious to produce in the time we have between now and Christmas Sunday. If we can pull it off, it might be our best play yet. And that's saying a lot - we've put on a number of great plays...

I'm just glad Skyrim doesn't come out for another month! Man, if I had that game to distract me right now, I'd never get the script done... the more I see of that game, the more amazed I am by it, and the more I want it, want it, want it.

Does this guy look bored to you?

So, my youngest will be having her 6th birthday party soon. Since it's so close to Halloween, we're making it a costume party again this year. That will likely become the annual tradition. She wanted to make it a Transformers dress-up theme, but we felt that would be a bit too constricting (not all kids are obsessed with Transformers like she is), so we broadened it to include superheroes as well. Still not sure what I'll dress up as, if anything. I was thinking about going as Hancock (from the Will Smith movie of the same name), but I doubt anyone will "get it". Any ideas?

I was watching Rugby on the television the other day when we were at On The Border (for Taco Tuesday). That game is impossible to understand. It's one of the great mysteries of life, like the stock market, the tax code, love, and how they get the bubbles into carbonated water.

I'm not sure how I feel about this new Jack Vale video clip. He has on an ultra-realistic "old man" mask, and does some serious pooting in a Target store somewhere...



I admit, I laughed quite hard, but I felt guilty about it. Shall we take some time to try and analyze why I'm so conflicted about it?

Yeah, I don't think we should, either...

One of my favorite photoshops from my archive... no sense letting it languish there!

So, after spending a few weeks reading "book samples", I finally read a full book this past week! Just finished reading Spellwright, by Blake Charlton on Wednesday. I wish I could summon the inner "whatever" necessary to write a full book review, but I think I'll just summarize. Gotta save my creativity for tonight's attempt at finishing the script!

The story centers around a dyslexic wizard, who may or may not be some "chosen world hero" type of character. The magic system is quite cool and well-developed. Magicians study certain magical "languages", and cast spells by writing sentences (if you will), forming the letters within their very forearms, arranging them into sentence-spells, and casting them out of their fingertips. It sounds wacky, but the effect is quite cool. Picture the Emperor from Return of the Jedi, casting that lightning out of his hands to sizzle Luke Skywalker, before Darth Daddy chucked him over the rails. Now picture words streaming out of his fingers instead of lightning. You get the idea.

Only a curse has been placed on the main character, which causes him to misspell the spells (lol), often with devastating negative effects. As you can imagine, the story deals at first with his disillusionment over his disability, and then his quest to have the curse removed so he can fulfill his destiny (which may or may not actually apply to him).

It's a good book, with some good ideas. The magic system is good, the action and local settings are good, and the writing solid. Yet the story itself had issues for me. A lot of the plot developments and "twists" seemed very forced to me, and the world-building was quite ham-fisted in places. Granted, this is the author's debut novel, so a certain amount of leeway should be granted, so he can develop and mature. Still, the ride was enjoyable (if tedious in places). And though I enjoyed it, I'm not sure I enjoyed it enough to move on to the next book in the series.

So, yes, yet another series starter that I won't likely pursue further. I should go back over my book list from the past two years and check it out. I bet there are very few series that I pursued past book one. Odd. I don't feel like I'm that particularly hard to please.

I've begun a new novella by Brandon Sanderson called Infinity Blade. Believe it or not, it's a tie-in story for a video game of the same name that is available for iPad. I have the game, actually, but (surprise surprise!) I haven't really played it much yet. Sanderson was apparently paid a tidy sum to crank out the novella, and it was only $3, so I popped for it. It's quite good, actually (as expected from anything by Sanderson). I'll let you know my thoughts in the next post I make.

Did you know that among the latest trends in Japan is a dental procedure to make your teeth crooked? The anti-braces, I guess. Apparently, the thinking is that girls with perfect teeth are unapproachable, but girls with crooked teeth are more down-to-earth and less intimidating. Crazy. Don't know if it applies to guys or just the females. Check this article out for more info, if you don't believe me..

OK, well, I think I'm done for tonight. Off to try and finish the Christmas script. Squish me luck.

Dave the Daunted

Friday, October 7, 2011

A Quick-Hit, Drive-By, Near-Substance-less Post


Here's the funny part... lots of stuff going on, in just about every facet of my life... and NONE of it even remotely interesting enough to warrant some text time in a blog post. Books, movies, music, work, church, drama, personal creative junk, personal training junk... all of it eminently yawn-worthy.

Still, a whole week, and no update from Dave. I mean... how will you survive? I know, I'm cruel! But what can I say... boring update, or no update at all?

Can't write it off to the "Fall Blahs"... because, frankly, I enjoy the Fall. I love it when the weather turns chilly... then I can bust out my hoodies for sleeping! Ah, I love sleeping in a hoodie, the hood pulled up and drawstring pulled tight. Snug, warm, comfy... never want to wake up! Too cozy! In fact, I'm getting sleepy just thinking about it!

Ah, well. Lemme just post a Funny Picture and hit the road...


I'll keep hoping for something interesting to happen, to make your next stop-by worth while.

Until then, adios.

Dave the Boring

PS Hey, you could do the work for me this time, and post something interesting in the comments! Then I can live vicariously through you! Think of it!