So I was checking out the weekly updates for Girl Genius (an absolutely wonderful web-comic which you really should be reading) when I noticed they had something new linked on their site. Othar’s Twitter, finally a good use for that rather silly and self-important web toy. (more…)
So I just woke up after a very small amount of sleep with a craving for crackers and cheddar. So sitting at my desk eating some Triscuits with small blocks of Tillamook cheddar on them.
Amusing myself as I devour the cheddar I cut off the loaf by re-reading MegaTokyo’s archives and trying to find the exact point where I lost interest in the comic. I started reading it very early on, before they plane flight to Japan so in the first couple strips. I still have a ‘Does anyone here speak leet?’ t-shirt and mousepad.
It has been a couple years since I last read it, my opinion of it was pretty much the same as the one depicted here (not safe for work, Sexy Losers (the linked to comic strip) is funny, but adult enough that it could get you in trouble). Basically that you had to be a serious Japan fan-boy to understand the jokes or references that showed up in the strip and it just ceased to be fun or funny to me.
Will have to see if that happens again this time, I think it was during the giant monster attack upon the rampaging otaku who were swarming a store that one of the characters who was an ex- idol singer worked at.
Anyways, about a hundred strips in so still several hundred away from where I read it last. But about to drift back to sleep now that my tummy is full of delicious cheddar and not as delicious but still tasty triscuits.
(Originally posted at A Home Away from Hythia)
Spent a little while catching up with reading Girl Genius off of it’s website today. Girl Genius is a wonderfully cool comic done by Phil and Kaja Foglio ( if those names don’t ring a bell at all, you just lost a hell of a lot of ‘geek points’ ). It is up on the web with two story arcs, Girl Genius 101 is the original 13 (12?) issues of the comic book that they are putting up on the web now, three times a week, one page at a time. Girl Genius Advanced Class is the continuing story from where issue 13 left off. If you are new to the story, definately start with ‘101′ and be patient. There is a pretty big gap in story still between where they are at with the web release of ‘101′ and where ‘Advanced Class’ starts. You can jump right to ‘Advanced Class’ but their will be some spoilers about ‘101′ pages that haven’t gotten posted yet along the way. Very fun read though, love the whole fantasy steam-punk mad science romance setting.
On a different note, ran around with Kinetica in CoH for a while last night. Was fun, helped Puck beat up some Malta’s and then helped Justice Stryke and Eagle Fist get a respec TF started, and almost helped them start a different one when the level of the Freakshow one was a little too painful but I think they snagged another teammate (who was too low to come on the Freak respec) to come along and get it started, hope it went well for them. Chatted some with people meanwhile, dropped a hello over to Avocet, and caught up some with NorthStar 1. Nice quiet little bit of play time. Amazing how much more fun it can be when I don’t have to listen to people get verbally abused while trying to help them get something going.
Which ended when I realized I was hungry, it was dark out, and I still needed to get groceries to make dinner and I still wanted to devour some form of sea life. Things to remember… Get groceries earlier in the day, if it is dark out don’t wear all black to walk to the grocery store in, and if it is late cold and raining to just get a frickin’ pizza delivered next time.
(Originally posted at A Home Away from Hythia)
Because I don’t get to use the word ‘pimpage’ enough in my day to day life, here are two other web-comics I like, but don’t actually have linked to here. Both of these are much more ‘proper’ stories then the typically web-comics. They are divided into chapters and have clear rises and falls to their story-arcs. Plus they are beautifully drawn and make me smile.
Errant Story is a fantasy story with elves, magic, gun-wielding assassins, and a sociopathic girl with a talking cat who for her graduation project intends to become a goddess. Been reading it since the beginning as I used to read “Exploitation Now!” which was the artists former web-comic. The first page of it is here.
9th Elsewhere is the story of a girl trapped in her own dreams / subconcious and the muse who is assigned to help her work through the layers of her mind and return to the real world. Beautifully drawn, great story, if I could find some way to steal the basic concept of it and not be completely ripping it off I so totally would. Also fun bits of psychology and other things Jungian in it. The first page of it is here.
(Originally posted at A Home Away from Hythia)
So not entirely sure how to describe this, but it amuses me and thus I put it out there to see if it amuses you who read this.
Wondermark is a very strange little web-comic. The closest thing that comes to mind would be if Red Meat was drawn in what looks like very old-style ink stylings or woodcuts.
Actually, as I look at it, Wondermark is a little heavier on the sight gags (which goes great with the art style simply making the dialogue feel out of place) and Red Meat is more from the built up absurdity of the dialogue (with the occasional sight gag like a naked Wally or Ted in a bondage mask). Hell, give them both a look. Both make me smile for entirely the wrong reasons.
(Originally posted at A Home Away from Hythia)
diesel sweeties is doing a set of valentine’s day comics with cards you can print out and give people. Very very funny cards. Today was day 3 of it, not sure how many days he is going to do this in total. But definately worth a peek for a good laugh.
(Originally posted at A Home Away from Hythia)
So when I went to empty out my Border’s giftcard the other day I didn’t find a copy of ‘Ishmael’ or ‘My Ishmael’, but I did find a copy of ‘Guns, Germs, and Steel’ by Jared Diamond.
Very good book. Read some of it in the old hardback version, this newer paperback version includes a chapter he wrote later about how history is affecting modern politics today.
One sentence summary by the author: “History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves.”
Very dry description of a very well written book about the rise of ‘civilization’, the ways that environmental conditions changed the results in different parts of the world, and what happened when those societies collided.
The gift designed to make your mailman hate you, and to scare the hell out of anyone who comes to visit.
The Penguin Classics Library Complete Collection
1082 books. 750 pounds of books. They arrive in 25 boxes, shrinkwrapped, atop a wooden pallet, and take up approximately 77 linear feet of shelf space.
If I ever become wealthy enough to be able to become a reclusive hermit-like bibliophile, this would be a great way to start.
(Originally posted at A Home Away from Hythia)
So in my free moments lately, on the bus traveling to and from meetings, or waiting for my computer to reboot, or water to boil to cook dinner, I’ve started re-reading George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Fire and Ice” series.
To put it simply, truly epic fantasy. I mean… Wow. War, love, mysteries, treachery and betrayal, feuds between families, etc. Truly truly complex and amazingly well written series of books.
The series starts in A Game of Thrones, continues with A Clash of Kings, into a A Storm of Swords, and just last month (I think last month) A Feast for Crows which I haven’t read yet.
The series is very good, very complex, but because of both of those and that it has a truly huge cast of characters it at times can be very frustrating. Each chapter is from the perspective of one character, and no two chapters in a row are from the same characters perspective. So there will be times when a character you really like ( and you will find yourself, if you like the series at all, identifying closely with one or more of the characters ) won’t have a chapter or even a mention for several hundred pages.
Oh and a warning so that if any of you read this because of my mention you don’t hate me for it later, the author is a complete and total bastard. In the Joss Wheedon sense of the word. Really and truly, he completely fucks with each and every character to some degree at some point.
He’ll spend a long time introducing a character to you that you’ll really like, someone who you are certain is going to be a pivotal figure throughout the series, and then casually in a paragraph kill them off, kill everyone around them, end their chapter, and never mention them again.
Next thing you know you’ll come across a chapter from the point of view of the villainous ass you’ve been loathing the entire time, the one that has you frothing at the mouth just hoping someone will stick them with a long sharp pointy piece of metal, and he’ll let you inside their head and see the world from their point of view and you realize that they have good motivations and are a decent person too and suddenly you find yourself liking a character you really wish you could despise.
I wish I could say that I recommend the series to everyone, but I really can’t. My friends in the past seem to be split just about evenly on the series. Some of them truly love it and gnash their teeth waiting for the next book to be released, others of my friends try the first book out and get bored and disgusted partway through because it is paced a bit more slowly then a ‘normal’ sword & sorcery sort of fantasy novel.
Myself, I had a hard time with it the first time through because there is one character ( small spoiler, but I want to be clear who: Daenerys ) whose chapters I just absolutely despise. The character does not interest me much at all, but is one of the long-term pivotal ones that has chapters again and again, but she is so far removed geographically, and to a sense stylistically, from the rest of the cast that her chapters are ones I just have to force myself through in order to get back to the other characters that, to me, are actually doing something interesting.
So borrow or check out a copy of the first book A Game of Thrones ( though the most recent paperback edition sells for only $3.99, I think part of the drive to get readers into the series after the fourth book hit #1 on the Times Bestseller List ) and give it a try. Hopefully you’ll like it. Try at least to get 190 pages in ( the first book in paperback is 870 long ) as that puts you past the first couple Daenerys chapters, gives you the first few Jon Snow ones, and pretty well introduces most of the early cast of characters, setting up the sorts of political tensions that exist in the series.
If, at that point, you are still bored out of your mind or just can’t figure out why people like it, then it isn’t for you and you might as well find something else to read.
If you get that far and find yourself flipping ahead, looking for the chapter title pages with the names of the characters you like in big bold print there, then you are well and hooked and enjoy and try not to hate me too much if your favorite character gets screwed with too badly.
(Originally posted at A Home Away from Hythia)
Jim Butcher writes a couple of series. The Codex Alera which I haven’t read, and the Dresden Files which I have read. The Dresden Files are centered around the character of Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, Chicago’s first (and only) Wizard P.I. Think “supernatural private investigator in a world where magic is still largely disbelieved” and you have it pretty much right. Just without the tons of often goofy sex that seems to show up quite commonly in similar books.
I picked up the first Dresden Files book ( Storm Front ) ages back mostly on a lark. The book turned out to be remarkably good and I ended up devouring it pretty much overnight and snagged the second ( Fool Moon ) and third ( Grave Peril ) which were both already out at the time and waited impatiently for the fourth ( Summer Knight ) to come out. I had almost forgotten the authors name when the fifth ( Death Masks ) came out but ultimately trudged through a snowstorm in NC to get it, but didn’t get the sixth ( Blood Rites ) until after I had moved back to OR as all my books were boxed up and between coasts at the time when it came out and I wanted to re-read the earlier ones before I got it.
Now the seventh ( Dead Beat ) came out in May and it, unlike the rest of them, was originally released in hardcover. Ugh. Hardcover. I hate buying books in hardcover. I like trade paperback size, the larger then mass-market size, because I can still fit it in my backpack when heading around town, it is easy to read while riding the bus or waiting for it, but hardcover… Too big, too heavy, too clunky, too expensive.
Book eight ( Proven Guilty ) should be coming out next year, so hopefully by the holidays the seventh will be in paperback. I can’t find a paperback release date for it anywhere so far, and Amazon.com changed their layout again on me and I think went out of their way to make it more clutter and less usable. Anyways, no sample chapters up for number eight yet, so no linkage to it.
(Originally posted at A Home Away from Hythia)