I've been introducing the Owlvark to the joy that is Brisco County Jr, and I find myself wishing I'd seen more than a handful of episodes when they first came out. I remembered them fondly, if fuzzily, but if I'd been able to catch more I would have noticed Bruce Campbell a bit earlier and had some more eye-candy for my walls. I'm sure I could have found room for another pin-up between the Forever Knight one and the They Might Be Giants one :)

Why oh why oh why didn't William Gibson's screenplay for Alien 3 get chosen? Is it perfect? No, but hey, what is? It's at least four times as awesome as any science fiction film I've seen in the last several years, and, wonder of wonders, it's actually *scary*, which is not something often I say about films. I can't see where it would require a supersized budget, at least no more so than Aliens; it's set on a space station, so the sets could be claustrophobic, and there aren't a crap-ton of aliens in it at any given time until the end, and even when there's a lot of them it's nothing Stan Winston (Gods rest his soul) couldn't have managed. I won't wreck it for you guys, but it's as suspenseful and bloody and violent and heroic as one would hope an Alien film to be, and even leaves the ending open for a series of Marines vs. aliens films, which also would have been great.

Interestingly, I get the feeling that the Alien toys released in the early 90's were sort of based on this script, or possibly vice-versa. They were weird, but cool- I still have the bull alien around somewhere.

So it's been a Chandler week, in that I've been re-reading all the Philip Marlowe books I have in order. I picked up a decent used copy of "Lady In The Lake" as a sort of early Christmas present to myself, and from there I started reading the others in an unbroken string, for what I think is the fourth time this year. There's still a couple that I'm missing, but they'll be picked up in due time. It's easy to get lost in Marlowe's world; Chandler had a unique way with turns of phrase, and his first-person narratives are flawless. Marlowe is as three-dimensional as it comes- I've met people in real life who were less believable. Chandler makes it look easy, but what he does is anything but. Great stuff.

more music charts

Where do we sign up to go out drinking with Matt Berry and Rich Fulcher, anyway? That would be an absolute riot.

Duke Nukem Forever was announced in April 1997, at which time I was a senior in high school. They just released some new in-game footage a little over a month ago and speculation is high that the game will be released "soon."

Things I have done since Duke Nukem Forever was announced:

Graduated high school
Loafed around for a year
Moved to upstate New York
Learned to ride, train, and groom
Became a riding instructor
Went to college
Written several hundred pages of usable work
Read several hundred books
Owned six computers
Learned to cook
Crossed the Atlantic five times
Spent most of a year in the UK
Got married twice

First snow of the year...

Admittedly it wasn't a very heavy snowfall, nor did it last for too long or stick for more than a minute, but still, snow.

So, I got ahold of a used sewing machine over the weekend, which was excellent, as I've been hand-sewing everything for a while now. I don't mind hand sewing, and I even enjoy it on small projects, but since I'm putting together heavy drapes for the windows (I'm trying to keep the gas bill down this year...) stitching by hand just isn't the answer. And I always enjoyed machine sewing as well; Bummy started teaching me when I was very young, and I was reminded again of how much fun it was when I did a quick job putting together a sash for my wedding dress.

Sadly, the machine I got didn't last; we took it apart and oiled it first thing, worked the gears by hand to make sure they weren't frozen, and did pretty much everything you cando without specialized knowledge, and I managed one drape before the motor started to fail. The Owlvark (who has his own blog now, by the way) figures that there was something inside the motor that was frozen or rusted, which it had to work against, and finally gave up after being under too much load. By the end of the drape I managed to get done it was definitely struggling.

Currently, I'm browsing the 'net looking at new sewing machines. Well, new to me, anyway, as I keep finding older used models that look much more useful than new ones do. I don't need a machine with a computer in it; I need it to do some very basic sewing, not perform complex equations, and there's less to go wrong the less complicated it is. Also, I find the older models more aesthetically pleasing, although that's only a minor point. I'm quite liking the Husqvarnas that I've seen so far; there's actually a local dealer in Erie, but unless they do used ones I may browse Ebay a while longer.

I can't remember who said it, or when, but there's a saying that goes "If you're lucky enough to have people who love you, then you're lucky enough."

#looking for a cottage to rent for our honeymoon...#

Duamuteffe: Hey, this one is really nice, it's right on the lake and- eh, never mind, they want $3150 for the week.

Owlvark: 3150? Dollars? Do we get to keep the house afterwards?

Things *not* to name your kids.

Dear lord, this is both hilarious, and rather saddening for the children involved. These names are really, really, really bad. It's one thing that you want to be unique, and give your kid a unique name, but you have to think how this name is going to affect your child's life, and how it will look on job applications and college term papers and work projects and everything else. The truth is, if your child has an incredibly doofy name, it is going to cause them problems, and life is tough enough without adding to it at the very beginning.
Personally, my basic guideline is that I refuse to name my kids anything that sounds like something you'd run from in Call of Cthulhu.

I'd never seen any of the film from Johnny Cash's performance in San Quentin- I mean, I'd heard the music, of course, but I'd never seen the actual footage before, and I can't get over the looks on the prisoners' faces- they look so open, so happy- it's just amazing.

I noticed last night on the IMDB boards for Hogfather there's a discussion of who should play Vetinari. What? Why is there even an argument? Alan Rickman, end of story.

I can't believe I'm number one on Google for the locating and purchasing of a certain type of amphibian. I won't name it here so it doesn't throw off the search, because according to my referrer logs, it's actually a fairly helpful and well-used post. It's just a very odd thing to be ranked for.

I love Going Under, don't get me wrong. Live, studio, whatever, it's one of my faves in all its iterations, but it just drives me absolutely crazy. The music, because it goes up and up and then drops back to the beginning, over and over, without ever reaching a climax. The lyrics, because they remind me that I missed out on those early days of Devo, that I missed out being packed into dim and dingy clubs with other newfound Spuds, missed the sweat and smoke and fights with the normals and late nights and whatever happened backstage, and most of all the music, I missed out on the music. I've got it all now, but if I'd been able to be there then, to see it all firsthand... Gods, if I had a Tardis, that would be my first stop, but I don't.

It's never straight up and down.

So yes, Christmas went quite well, but today I received a Christmas card from a geographically distant aunt and uncle, and judging from the way they addressed it, no one's mentioned the divorce to them. (Neither, apparently, had anyone mentioned that I never changed my name in the first place, but that's beside the point.) At any rate, it occurred to me that there are no hard and fast rules regarding how you announce a divorce to relatives- marriages of course involve announcement cards, but if there's divorce cards out there, they don't advertise much. I assumed that the news would trickle down through the family, and to some extent it has, but apparently seven states is a little too far for it to travel. I guess I'll have to email; not sure how I'm going to phrase this one, but I'll figure something out.

Man, if they're this far behind, lord only knows how I'm going to tell them that I'm getting married again...