My Little Corner of the World: Yet Again, I Blame the French...

Greetings, earthlings! How goes it, eh? EH? Speak up!

Oh, I had my earplugs in, sorry.

OK, fine, I put the earplugs in on purpose! Yes, to block you out! Because you ask too many questions, that's why! Sheesh! Just because you're a private investigator doesn't mean you need to get your questions all over me! I mean, I'll never get them out of this silk shirt... I just bought it, too... just when I was finally updating my wardrobe after 20 years...

Looks like I'll have to go back to jeans and T-shirts...

OK, fine, ask your questions... How's things? Ummm... could you be more specific? No?

Fine, I'll wing it.

But first, I have to post a sad photo of a blind cat...

How sad...

OK, now, where was I..?

Things are going great!

There, now what...

The webseries is progressing nicely... took a road trip up to Lancaster with Jeff (aka Herr Director) this past Sunday, to scope out Lancaster and get a good feel for the place. We had a chance to chat a lot about the story and the scripts. Progress was made! And then... we got Weinerschnizel on the drive home... and it went downhill from there! Chilidogs + car windows up = living life on zee edge! Actually, it wasn't that bad... though I was prepared in case we ran out of gas...

Speaking of crazy Russians in cars...

(That's Jeff driving, and me in the car seat...)

That's either exceptionally cool, or grounds for arrest...

So I finished two books since last we spoke (yes, it has been that long). One was called Promise of Blood, by author Brian McClellan. That was a fantasy tale of the "sword and sorcery" variety, with heavy doses of muskets, pistols and other gunpowder-related fun... the summary I gave it on Good Reads is as follows:

A solid sword & sorcery (& gunpowder) tale, with some good action, and a handful of juicy story elements. The middle of the book -- especially Adamat's investigation -- could have used a little more thought and polish. But it starts and ends well, and has some memorable characters and moments (and some not-so-memorable ones as well). Some of the situations felt a little too forced/convenient. Nevertheless, it's well worth a read if you're a fantasy fan at all. It may agree with you better than it did with me. Not sure if I'll continue reading the series, but that shouldn't stop you from giving it a go.

3.5 stars for a good read...

And then, there's Night of Cake and Puppets by a gifted female authoress named Laini Taylor. This is a novella (about 100 pages) and was wonderful. I'm a grown man, for crying out loud, and I was weeping like a school-girl! Yes, I'm not ashamed to admit it! Ok, a little ashamed, but hey, we're all friends here, right? I mean, you all attended my bar mitzvah that one time, remember? So, yeah, we're close...

Anyway, this book is so far out of my normal reading realm, I'm not even sure when or where I got it... I think it was a recent "Kindle Daily Deal" or something. Anyway, the two main characters are Zuzana and Mik, who are seventeen, and both deeply interested in each other, but afraid to approach each other... Zuzana decides she's had enough of unfulfilled longing and decides to plan an elaborate set of magical steps to lead Mik to her, starting with a treasure map she leaves in his violin case. The story bounces back and forth between the two as the night evolves, and it's so achingly sweet and beautiful, it wrung out my heart... 5 stars. A fast, wonderful read.

OK, fine, here's my Man Card... when can I have it back?

Never?!?!? Wait! What if... uh... what if I climb to the top of Shanghai Towers with these two crazy Russian dudes?

Would I get my Man Card back then? Good...

OK, what else?

Family, work and church are all going fine. It's proving difficult to find time for everything lately... even game-playing is getting minimal time... I still read during lunch each day, and a little at night, but other than that, my time is going nearly completely into the web series, in one capacity or another. And, frankly, I'm loving every minute of it. In fact, as soon as I finish here, I'm going to pull up Adobe Story and dive back into the script for episode 2...

The Oscars are this Sunday. I'll probably watch them for a little bit... then again, maybe not. I mean, I watched a tiny bit of the Super Bowl a few weeks back, and even less of the Winter Olympics... I seem to be experiencing a quantum shift in my routines and predilections and tendencies! We'll see where it ends up, eh?