I'm Sorry...What?

1.24.11

3:50 pm

Rumbating.

Lardamarcy.

Yakeyanmissit.

Tingsendat.

God damn are you Jamaicans unintelligible.

You're Ja-makin'-me want to throw grammar books and dictionaries at you.

Or machetes.

Anyway.

Made massive progress on Pesadilla over the weekend.

Like,  85% done.

Tried dropping some of the actual feature into the authoring program...no go, I'm going to need to pick up some DVD+R DLs for this one.

Certainly hope all y'all DVD players can handle these...

The menus are looking a bit tight, might have to compromise something there...

But, I found out I can do a shit ton of cool authoring stuff.

If it fits...

I only have the credits, some Santa Fe stuff and the Party section...then organizing everything and then...?

Yeah, that might be it.

I'm taking tomorrow and Wednesday off as it is my Birthday, so I should hopefully have things done by then.

At this point, after having seen every picture and video clip taken on this trips numerous times, I must say, next time we have to get more pictures of the people.

There are three (3) pictures of Grace, three (3) of Phil and Grace and one (1) of just Phil.

Meanwhile, there are, literally, dozens of me.

Why did God curse me with such...photogenetism?

Also, there is exactly ONE picture of the six of us.

What the fuck, people?

Are we, as individuals and as a group, less important and beautiful than New Mexico?!

I say thee NAY, mothafuckas!!!

I say thee eff that ess!!!!

EFF IT!!!

Hard.

Also, next time, we need all of us.

This decision has nothing to do with sentimentality or anything like that, I'm just getting sick of explaining every single joke that Phil and Grace weren't there for.

It gets old.

Fast.

All right.

Enough of that.

Chris was away this weekend and, when she got back, we watched The Assassination of Jesse James By The Longest Movie Title I Have Seen In Quite A While.

We were excited to get on a small "Western" kick after seeing True Grit last weekend.

Folks, The Assassination of Etc. is NOT the same type f movie as True Grit.

It's a lot less...Coen-y.

A bit too much Oscar gloss and arty shots that just went on for fucking ever.

Sam Rockwell did great and Casey Affleck did really supergreat.

Brad Pitt was using his "slightly Southern" voice and did just fine as well.

It wasn't what either of us expected, not they either of us know anything about Jesse James.

I know a little about Jesse Jane, the porn star.

I also know that her movie, The Assassination of Jesse Jane's Ass By Ten Guys, is also, not quite like True Grit.

In a few days we'll have The Proposition.

I only know that Nick Cave either wrote and/or directed that.

So we'll see.

After Chris went off to bed, I watched Greenberg, the recent Ben Stiller movie.

In a way, Stiller kind of reminds me of Crispin (Hellion) Glover as he has these two discernable sides to his acting career: the mainstream Fockers, Tropic Thunder, Something About Mary side, and the more subtle, less retarded Permanent Midnight, Flirting With Disaster side.

Greenberg is totally the latter.

It's almost shocking to see Stiller acting so well.

In the movie...nothing really happens, but the writer/director does a good job of making it an interesting nothing, yeah?

You really get to know the character Stiller plays.

At the heart of the role, he's really just a hugely socially awkward guy, but Stiller does it so well, you don't mind.

It's not the greatest film you'll ever see, but it's a new look at Ben Stiller, specifically one or two moments of really excellent acting towards the end.

Returned our cable box (I haven't turned on the TV to watch TV in about six months) and bought Patton Oswalt's book, "Zombie Spaceship Wasteland".

Still have yet to finish Garp, start the new King, Butcher or "Perdido Street Station" or obtain the Ender books.

I should be set for a while.

Tomorrow I'm picking up Dead Space 2 and happy to do so.

Like I'd mentioned, I'd sort of lost interest in the game, but after playing the demo?

Yeah, back on it.

These guys nail atmosphere like no one else.

One might say it's just Silent Hill/Resident Evil in space, but a.) that's fucking awesome, b.) when there's a good RE or SH game out again, I'll give that complaint some clout and c.) DS2 is 1080p and you can see them working the shit out of every one of those pixels.

The game looks unbelievable.

And the sound design is so damn effective...you'll hear a small noise, like someone tapping their fingernails on an empty soda can, which seems to come from the ceiling and, once you assure yourself nothing is going to explode from the air vents and cut your face off, you'll forget about it. The higher you go, the more pronounced the sound gets until, an hour later, you're facing the three-story nightmare that's been punching it's way through a huge, steel wall the whole time.

So, I'm going to be pooping a bit when I get that up and running.

What you see above are the plans for my 30th Birthday: finish Pesadilla, play some scary games and spend some time with my One and Only.

This weekend, there is party and pizza and cuppy cake and fondue and pool.

And that is good.

10:37 pm

Just (finally) finished The World According To Garp by John Irving.

And I figured out what it is I liked about A Prayer for Owen Meany (a later book of his) that made me want to go back and read Garp.

It's the fact that there is a complete story in his books, the main characters never just pop up or disappear.

He writes them from birth to death (and a bit before and after in Garp) and everything in between. Sometimes that's actually a bit of a drawback because, as I had said, the book dragged at times, but that was only because Irving was focusing on the life of the main character (in this case, T.S. Garp), making him more real.

When something is referred to, it doesn't merely feel like foreshadowing what it's first mentioned, like a device as subtle as the author calling you up and saying "Wink, wink", it just feels like something in the character's life coming up again; more cyclical than heavy-handed.

He does an excellent job of showing the humor and sadness in life too, but without really hitting you over the head with it.

Plus he isn't overly precious with his characters either, ever one is subject to something awful at times, and it feels genuinely surprising in most cases.

Overall, a good one.

I'll probably read more of his, but not for a while.

Actually, reading over the above list of potential and upcoming reading material, I forgot one: in about 7 days, I'll have a brand new P. W. Tucker to read as well.

I'll stumble through the rest of the week reading comics and then, starting February 1st, I'll jump into Phil's fourth (finished) novel, One By One, which, if Will is telling the truth is a biography of the band Foo Fighters.

Very excited about that one as, despite what Phil thinks I thought of Dark Fae or Mother, Maiden, No Crone, I do enjoy his writing immensely.

2011 is looking to be an excellent literary year for me.

As a bystander, at least.

Oh, and Phil, right around the time you get to your ninth or tenth novel this year, can I suggest you write one about me?

Not only do I think it would be an excellent opportunity for you to write about me, but I would love to, finally, be immortalized in a book.

Written by you.

So...think about it.

In return I could write you a song...