Sunday, May 31, 2009

Week of Stories - May 31

Week of Stories – May 31

Stories read this week from over at A Year of Stories, Pirate.

Monday: “Double Down” by Jason Starr * * *
Tuesday: “The Contests at Cowlick” by Richard Kennedy * * * *
Wednesday: “Forbidden Brides…” by Neil Gaiman * * * *
Thursday: “Twice” by Deb Olin Unferth * *
Friday: “The Prince Who Married a Frog” by Italo Calvino * *
Saturday: “Doctor Jack-o’-Lantern” by Richard Yates * * * * *
Sunday: “The Night Flier” by Stephen King * * * *

My favorite story of the week was: “Doctor Jack-o’-Lantern” by Richard Yates

From the review: “This is the stuff of life, and it’s not neat, and it’s not nice. It’s true.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

It Can't Happen Soon Enough

Green Lantern - a trailer.

If a fan can put this together, just imagine what the movie - and there is a movie coming - could be. Simply amazing. And a good choice in actor for Hal Jordan.

Do I Read Too Much?

Today I read from the following books: Savage Season by Joe R. Lansdale, Blood Engines by T. A. Pratt, L.A. Outlaws by T. Jefferson Parker, Hunger by Michael Grant, The Good Guy by Dean Koontz, The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Miller, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith, Just After Sunset by Stephen King, Walking Dead by Greg Rucka, and Monster by A. Lee Martinez.

Whew.

It would be even more impressive if I had read more than a chapter or two in any of those books. I have a difficult time picking just one book to read.

Week of Loss - May 24

This week I gained 2.4 lbs., and am within 47 lbs. of my goal weight.

Continue to monitor my progress and other health and wellness information over at A Year of Loss and Health, Pirate.

Week of Stories - May 24

Stories read this week from over at A Year of Stories, Pirate.

Monday: “The Three Castles” by Italo Calvino * *
Tuesday: “Relations” by Deb Olin Unferth * * *
Wednesday: “My Lawrence” by Claudia Smith * * *
Thursday: “Ax” by Deb Olin Unferth * * *
Friday: “Jack Jaw and the Arab’s Ape” by Ryan Oakley * * * *
Saturday: “The November Game” by F. Paul Wilson * * * *
Sunday: “Graduation Afternoon” by Stephen King * * * *

My favorite story of the week was: “Jack Jaw and the Arab’s Ape” by Ryan Oakley

From the review: “I’ve always said: all any good story needs is a monkey ripping a man’s arms clean off – blood spurting – swinging those bastard limbs over its head.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Surrogates Trailer

Oooh. Science fiction is always fascinating. This new Bruce Willis led movie, based on a graphic novel, looks interesting. Full of action, robots, and...well, Bruce Willis being Bruce Willis.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Human Target Trailer

A new show this fall on Fox, Human Target, looks to have some potential. Based on a comic series of the same name, the show has the action, humor, and mystery that make for a must-watch series.

Sherlock Holmes Trailer

Sherlock Holmes is THE CHRISTMAS MOVIE of 2009. If Sherlock Holmes stories were as exciting as this trailer, I'd have read more of them. The humor, action (the boxing looks straight out of Snatch), the style - it's the Guy Ritchie twist on the Victorian detective. And that appears to be a very good thing indeed.

The movie stars Robert Downey, Jr., Jude Watson, and Rachel McAdams. It opens Christmas Day.

(The hammer fight - yes, hammer fight - is hilarious.)

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Week of Loss - May 17

This week I lost 1.8 lbs., and am within 44.6 lbs. of my goal weight.

Continue to monitor my progress and other health and wellness information over at A Year of Loss and Health, Pirate.

Week of Stories - May 17

Stories read this week from over at A Year of Stories, Pirate.

Monday: “The Snake” by Italo Calvino * * *
Tuesday: “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” by Neil Gaiman * * *
Wednesday: “Another One” by Deb Olin Unferth * * * *
Thursday: “A Flourish of Strumpets” by Richard Matheson * * * *
Friday: “En Transito” by Deb Olin Unferth -
Saturday: “Juanita” by Tim Wohlforth * * * *
Sunday: “The Boogeyman” by Stephen King * * * *

My favorite story of the week was: “Juanita” by Tim Wohlforth

From the review: “None of the characters are all that likeable – typical of noir – and yet they seem believable. They may not be people you would spend time with in the real world, but they make for fascinating company on the page.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Quick Draw by Jim Lee

Here's a great (and quick) sketch of Gambit by original artist, Jim Lee.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

The Road Trailer

The trailer for The Road, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, is now up at Yahoo! I'm excited for the movie because the book was this amazing piece of tension and horror and hope. The movie looks too "bright," but I have hope that it's every bit as dark as the novel.

October 16, 2009

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Care Bears Deathmatch?!


I never would have thought of putting the Care Bears up against the Lanterns. And in a deathmatch?

Monday, May 11, 2009

A Fables Novel


As broke as I am, it will be hard to pass up a novel set in the world of such a terrific comic book series. Coming out later this year, I may just have to save up some money.

(And what a pretty cover.)

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Week of Stories - May 10

Stories read this week from over at A Year of Stories, Pirate.

Monday: “We Ate the Children Last” by Yann Martel * * * *
Tuesday: “Single Percent” by Deb Olin Unferth * * * *
Wednesday: “Bad” by Deb Olin Unferth *
Thursday: “The Little Girl Sold with the Pears” by Italo Calvino * * *
Friday: “The Present of Concern” by Deb Olin Unferth * * * *
Saturday: “Dying Room Only” by Richard Matheson * * *
Sunday: “The Things They Left Behind” by Stephen King * * * * *

My favorite story of the week was: “The Things They Left Behind” by Stephen King

From the review: “Serious King is just as good as Scary King.

Week of Loss - May 10

This week I lost 0 lbs., and am still within 46.4 lbs. of my goal weight.

Continue to monitor my progress and other health and wellness information over at A Year of Loss and Health, Pirate.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Week of Loss - May 3

This week I gained 2.6 lbs., and am now within 46.4 lbs. of my goal weight.

Continue to monitor my progress and other health and wellness information over at A Year of Loss and Health, Pirate.

Weeks of Stories - Apr. 6 - May 3

A recap of some of the best short stories from over at A Year of Stories, Pirate.

4/11 “Monster” by Kelly Link (Children’s) * * * * *
4/12 “In the Deathroom” by Stephen King (Suspense) * * * *
4/17 “Soap” by Deb Olin Unferth (Suspense) * * * *
4/18 “Dreams” by F. Paul Wilson (Horror) * * * * *
5/3 “The Little Sisters of Eluria” by Stephen King (Pulp) * * * * *
5/4 “We Ate the Children Last” by Yann Martel (Science Fiction) * * * *

The weekly summary of short stories resumes tomorrow, May 10th.

Rough Month - Spartan Life - Big Changes

The past month has been rough. I fell off the wagon of ambition I was riding high on since the beginning of the year. Workouts stopped. Diet crumbled. Blogging became sporadic (at best – I “blame” Twitter).

And to top it all off, the life of easy leisure I was living finally caught up to me in a big, bad way.

I’m broke.

The budget I had in my mind (not a good place for anything – especially something as important as this) wasn’t at all accurate. Between that fact, and my tendency to spend, spend, spend, the world I lived in (not the real world) crashed.

I’m not going to go into details, but with the help of my brother, a new – honest – budget has been created. A check from the BEST MOM IN THE WORLD helped with a slight (exaggeration) money issue, and now I’m back on track.

Only it’s a different track.

It’s a life of more responsibility (because I have to face it: I was NOT being responsible). Rampant spending is over. All unnecessary expenses must be cut. Free time must now involve additional work at second (maybe third) jobs to bring in the funds necessary to pay the bills. It’s a life-changing time.

A more Spartan life.

I have a ton of stuff. Literally. I probably have two thousand pounds of comics, movies, books, CD’s, toys, etc., sitting on shelves gathering dust. There is no need (and no money) to add to this collection.

Instead, I will work hard to fill the hole I dug.

I will do this by finding that lost ambition I used to power me through some tremendous health and wellness changes at the beginning of the year. I’ll resume the blogging to stay accountable for my actions. The entertainment component will still be a part of my life – there is no getting rid of it – but it will come out of the past, out of the collection of materials I’ve gathered and ignored over the past 10 years. Leisure and laziness must become things of the past. Work and effort and responsibility are the Pirate’s new tools.

Funny from Family

Wow, a movie starring some of my relatives. Almost as good as Star Trek!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Music to Carry Me Away

Six years ago (doesn't feel like that long ago) I spent a lot of time burning CDs - this was all pre-iTunes craze - of the music I'd accumulated during my time in Iowa City (college - round 1). Flipping through the binders of music I have sitting on my shelf this afternoon I'm finding all sorts of good stuff. At least, I remember it being good stuff, years ago.

None of this music - all at least 3+ years old - is on my computer, the iPods, or in any type of rotation. Hasn't been for ages. I think over the next few months I'll dig in. I'll play albums not played in years, upload some tracks to the iPods for workouts, save some music to the hard drives for posterity (only the good stuff). I'm sure there's a small fortune of music there (my credit card debt would attest to that), a small wealth of tunes to carry me through the summer.

Today: A burned mix of songs from Days of the New and Live.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Go JOE!

Can't help being a child of the 80's. While I wish it was a little less now, I'm still excited to see what they do with JOE.

G.I. JOE trailer in HD