Arrant Nonsense

Well. I was going to console myself over the election results by making an Iron Man vid.

What I didn't count on was my DVD ripper getting all hinky on me. I'm using SmartRipper, but it apparently doesn't like my Iron Man DVD or something, so I'm considering using something else. Anyone have any recs?

Also! I am holding, in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers, a copy of Invincible Iron Man #7, in which Spidey makes an appearance. And this issue points up just how much I don't know about this 'verse and the fact that I really do need to get my hands on at least the IM Civil War trade, if nothing else.

I also got a Miniature Alliance Iron Man keychain, an Iron Man MiniMates set with Tony and Iron Monger (I need the Pepper Potts one like burning), and my copies of Chances Are/Only You and Jim Butcher's Backup. This brings the number of RDJ movies I own up to seven:
Chances Are
Only You
Iron Man
US Marshals
Chaplin
Less Than Zero
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Still waiting on the shoes...

You know, some internal consistency in this story might be nice.

I've established that the nanotech makes the recipients alternately exhausted and ravenous as it uses the body's resources to heal it. HOWEVER. I establish that in the second scene where they use it.

Do I have a graceful way of inserting it into the first scene?

Nooooooo.

CRAP.

Nevermind. I can do it by the simple expedient of them making a detour to the kitchen after not!Tony wakes up from, you know, being shot.

In other news, we're going to Vegas this weekend to watch an NHRA race, which should be fun and exciting, but this means I have tons of things to do today, including a visit to the bank, the comic store (new Spike, Solomon Kane, and Chuck comics today, woo!), and Target, for these:



Understand that I don't get shoe lust very often. I own something like...four? pairs of shoes (seriously--a pair of running shoes, a pair of hiking boots, and two pairs of dressy flats, one light and one dark), and have a philosophy that life is too short to don uncomfortable footwear.

But these...they just speak to me on some primal level. I have no idea where I'm going to wear such things, or even if I ever will, because I'm already ridiculously tall and they look terribly uncomfortable, but... DAMN. Must. Have.

Yeah, I don't know either.

I've hit my "middle of the book" mini-climax.

Now I have to figure out how to wind it down (without being boring) before I wind it back up again.

I suppose the characters are going to have to deal with the interpersonal fallout of what's happened to them. Not!Harry and not!Harmony, especially, are going to have to come to terms with a new dynamic between them.

They'll just be relaxing when...WHAM. I'm going to hit them again. Because I'm mean like that.

In other news, I'm holding, in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers, the new book "Blood Lite: An Anthology of Humorous Horror," which just came out today and has a Harry Dresden story in it that had me dissolving in fits of giggles the entire way through. Complete and utter screwball comedy. It also boasts a story from the handsome and talented ericjamesstone, which you can read the beginning of here. But the Dresden story alone was worth the cover price.

I also stopped by Wally World and picked up a couple more Iron Man t-shirts, because, hey, you can never have too many of those, and at $7 apiece you can't beat the price with a stick. I think I might have one for every day of the week now...

Obsessed fangirl? Moi?

In other other news, we're heading out to San Diego tomorrow for a couple of days of fun in the sun. Seeing as we didn't actually do anything this summer except WorldCon, which wasn't exactly together, we thought maybe we should. Weather looks gorgeous. We're planning on coming back Saturday evening, so it's just a short trip. Should be fun, and getting away usually knocks something loose, writing-wise, for me.

I've done my 250 words.

I've broken 25,000 total.

And not!Perry (who is now a woman played by Camryn Manheim) has suddenly developed a personality.

Took her long enough. Now I have to go back and edit that in...

Also, Heroes broke my brain, Terminator broke my heart, and I have a headache that two ibuprofen and another two naproxen haven't touched.

However, I also have an Iron Man t-shirt I picked up at Wally World for $7 in the boys' department, as a boys' XXL will fit me. Yay. And a new Steelers jacket--although they way they played yesterday, the thing should have been half price. What did they do, replace the offensive line with high schoolers? Jeepers.

AND. We had lunch with one of the executive directors of Focus on the Family today, which was very cool.

And I can has:

The Iron Man Soundtrack (now playing and OMG it's SO GOOD)

The director's cut of Hellboy. $9 at Wal-Mart for a three-disc set. Whee!

Burn Notice. Not least because someone's written an Iron Man/Burn Notice crossover and I want to read it. *eyeshift*

Also, a t-shirt to put the the Tony Stark custom design I made on. *eyes printer* My black cartridge is nearly out of ink, and it's not printing too well. I'm tempted to just go ahead and switch it out, but I hate to do that until it's absolutely empty because I just hate wasting expensive ink that way. Also, I need to wash the tee before I put the transfer on it anyway, so I guess there's no real hurry.

I called Borders to see if they had the novelization of Iron Man in yet, and they didn't. Then we get home, and there's a message on the machine saying it's there. Seeing as they're down the block from the comic store, I'll just get it on Thursday. I can wait. I have Jim Butcher's latest to read anyway, and I need to finish that sooner rather than later, as it's due back at the library in three weeks and I won't be able to renew it.

And seeing as I have three comics from last week and one from this week, plus there's Serenity mugs... Yeah, we'll definitely be in the neighborhood on Thursday.

And saw "The Hulk" with "Speed Racer."

Non-spoilery reviews:
"The Hulk" was...good. Not excellent, but good. Somehow, they managed to suck all the fun out of it. I counted one funny line--and you get that in the trailer. It just lacked "Iron Man's" sarcasm and wit. The characters are quite earnest and mostly fundamentally decent, and we got a couple of iconic moments, but this read more like a prequel and a character-set-up than a standalone. And there's nothing wrong with that--I loved the ending; that was fabulous. I gave it 2 3/4 stars out of four. Not bad enough to be 2 1/2, not good enough to be 3.

"Speed Racer," on the other hand...

Boy, this is a bad movie. Eye-searingly, cringingly bad. I think everyone here knows I'm a NASCAR fan, right? And this movie commits the deadly sin of being a boring racing movie. Seriously, the pontificating in this thing would make a theological debate between Joe Lieberman and Ben Stein look interesting. (Yes, I know they're both Jewish. That's my point.) They take a point, beat it into the ground, bury it ten feet, and keep going. OMG. "I love you. I really really love you. No, really. Really really. And did I mention you make me proud? You make me so proud. So, so proud. Prouder than proud. I love you and I'm proud of you. Really, so much." I kept waiting for their lips to keep moving after they got done talking; the dialogue was like something out of a badly-dubbed movie.

Which, if that's the effect they were going for, more power to them, but this was painful to watch, folks. Classic instance of show, don't tell. They kept telling us that these are decent people whom we should be rooting for, but they never really showed us why.

And you guys know me. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief and dive into a world, no questions asked, I'm along for the ride. Smoke Monster on LOST? I'm there. Alien that farts helium on "Farscape"? Count me in. Sound in space in "Star Wars"? Eh, why not, at least for the original trilogy. This? Didn't pull me in. At all. Michael Medved gave it a star and a half. I think he was generous.

In other news, I've solved my Faerie Show Fic problem. I know how the new one ends. Now all I have to do is write it. *evil laughter*

In other other news, I'm looking at laptop bags, now that I saw that one on Ebags. We're going out later today to put actual eyeballs on some. If I can find one for under $31 with the same features, I'll buy it locally.

We visited the local zoo today and bought a membership. Considering how much we travel for the express purpose of going to zoos, this will come in handy, as it gets us in for either free or discounted to over 120 other zoos nationwide. I got some shiny shiny pix as well, and there's a new owl, a Long-Eared Owl, which I've never actually seen before. *dances*

In writing news, I'm thinking about redoing the Faerie Show fic in first person. Because I don't have enough revisions to do with the new ending. *beats Antubis* Not that I've actually, you know, finished the new ending or anything, or given the reader enough information at the start and throughout to let them know what might happen...

Also, I really want this laptop bag.

RIP, Tim Russert. You were, in general, fair, even with people with whom you disagreed, and you will be missed. :(

So, the library is completely backed up on S3 of BSG. So much so that I might get to start watching it...somewhere around Halloween. I'm at position 67. They have 20 copies. Okay, with a week-long turnaround time, maybe it's not quite that bad. But still. That's just the first disc.

I don't want to wait that long.

Thing is, we have a Rewards program through our Visa. We can get gift cards, or cash back, or shiny shiny merchandise. I noticed that we could get a gift card through Amazon (among other places). Hey, thinks I, (basically) free stuff.

After much discussion with the Hubby, and much hemming and hawing and back-and-forthing, and him insisting that "we should buy the whole series, because just having S3 would be dumb," and me saying "But we've seen S1, S2, and S2.5, why do we need to buy them" rather halfheartedly, because, hey, I want the entire series as much as anyone, but I know it's just his way of putting the kibosh on the whole thing...

And after pricing the sets at various places...

And after realizing that we can actually get more in real cashy money than we would if we redeemed the Rewards for gift cards...

And after (fortuitously) looking over at my TV DVD collection and noticing that HEY! we already have S1...

And after getting an email from DeepDiscount saying "Save 20% on your order when you put BIGSALE in the promo box!"...

I've ordered S2, S2.5, S3, and Razor. For the princely sum of...

Drumroll, please...

$88.08.

YEAH, BABY. I AM THE SHOPPING QUEEN. BOW BEFORE ME.

I have a title for the Bunny From Hell story, suggested by the Hubby, who is a genius, y'all. I'm...not sharing it, though. Because I'm mean. He also made a suggestion re: the ending, which I'm still mulling over. I may be posting it for the Concrit Group to tear into later today. I need to escalate the "creepy" factor before I do that, though.

The handsome and talented slushmaster has a poll up about snail mail vs email subs. Profic writers, go forth and vote and comment. You know you want to.

My gmail inbox remains empty. Woe.

"Lost" continues to rock my socks, y'all. That is some tasty tasty crack, and hey, dude who plays Ben? Here's your Emmy, man. Also, there's a new "Numb3rs" tonight, in case there's anyone on my flist besides bigsciencybrain who cares.

I have some new folks on my flist. *waves* I tag everything (mostly for my own record-keeping, especially as regards my fiction), so if there's a tag that piques your interest, click it and you can see everything I've ever written on the subject.

The Hubby bought a Dodge Durango yesterday, one of the old-style ones (because the new ones, although they have a Hemi, are butt-ugly). This may give him actual incentive to put the Willys on the block. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, nothing will ever be as cool as the Willys. NOTHING. On the other hand, we're getting old and comfort is a premium. I just hope he builds the Durango up so we can actually go jeeping in it.

We talked some more about the aracari last night, and I'm finally coming around to the viewpoint that the Hubby is right: The Green Aracari is (very slightly) prettier than the Ivory-Billed. The beak is just way more colorful. Do I lose Wife Cred for admitting he's right?

I got my Serenity ornament today, and it is very shiny and made of awesome. It would be even cooler if I had the Mal and Jayne action figures to go with it, but I don't. Woe. Perhaps I shall finally buy them on eBay. Along with Spike's and Angel's cars. After all, I have Starsky's car--along with a Pacer, a Pinto, and a Gremlin, and a '59 DeSoto Fireflite that isn't Spike's.

My Farscape S2 DVDs shipped today. Which is good, because we've only got six eps left to watch in S1. My Angel scriptbooks are nowhere to be seen, and I'm really hoping that they didn't come while we were in Dallas and get stolen off my porch, because that would suck. I'll give them another week before I start getting worried.

I have two and a half pages of ScruffDogFic. Where this is going, I have no idea, and I'm seriously debating having her die on the operating table. The Hubby says I can't do that, because the Antichrist can't die, per se, but he is a silly person.

I got my assignment for friend_fic today. Now I have a month to pick two characters of the opposite sex and write friendship fic inspired by "nothing whatsoever." Hee! Ideas are percolating. I've wanted to write Jayne and Inara for a fair bit. This may be my opportunity, although inlovewithnight has written the perfect one of those.

The airplane should be ready any time. The radio that was off getting fixed is done getting fixed and should be shipped back to the FBO soon. Hubby's got eight days off for his transition from August to September, so if it's ready then, that would be perfect.

I did 26.6 miles and burned 1250 calories on the recumbent stationary bike yesterday. Today, I'm doing a little weightlifting. That being said, I do not recommend dropping three pounds in one day to anyone. 'Tis draining. But at least I'm back to where I was before we went to Texas. Of course, that was before we found the dark chocolate M&Ms at WalMart, which we've been waiting to come out FOREVER. And they are just as delicious as you'd think they'd be. Dammit.