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Randomness for 12/22

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1) Five Facebook Status updates by Star Wars characters.

2) It’s a Wonderful Night of the Living Dead! In 1992, when IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE was still in the public domain, the director of 976 EVIL 2 used it in a dream sequence, where one of the leading ladies mixes IAWL up with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, with cheesy and hilarious results. via Bill Martell at sex in a sub.

3) Parkour Santa! Warning, kids: Do not try this at home!

4) An amusing story of Christmas “murder.”

5) The Jeff Dunham Show is the Worst Thing in the Entire World.

6) And here’s the runner-up for the second-worst thing: Um, yeah. That’s “I’m Gonna Spend My Christmas With a Dalek”. It’s one of those YouTube videos with the song playing under a static album cover image and, as bad as you think it’s going to be, it’s actually much much worse.

Another interview with me

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Actually, this will probably be the last one, and it’s text rather than an audio file. It’s at Write On Online, and it was done by Debra Eckerling.

It’s a writing site, so there’s writing advice on there, for those who are interested in that sort of thing.

God, it’s been a weird day for me. Is it weird for you? I’m doing the preliminary work on Next Project and polishing Man Bites World, and I canceled our cable TV. It’s been a decent enough day, but I feel all disjointed.

Huh. I just realized that it’s 9:45. I woke at 4:20 this morning after an horrifying nightmare, and I forgot to eat. I’m going to make a bit of food, and then we’re going out. Keep the internet interesting while I’m gone, please.

Three things:

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First: Child of Fire is on the bestseller list for Mysterious Galaxy. Yay! Dear Internet, please bring me more news like that.

Second: My wife had a sleep study appointment tonight. We hired a babysitter, went out to dinner, I dropped her off at the room, then headed out to the bus stop to put my son to bed. Ten minutes before I arrived, at 9:15, my wife called to say the technician had called in sick and the study was cancelled. She had to take two buses home and this is not the first fuck up in scheduling this study.

Third: I forget the third thing. I’m tired. Good night. Oh wait! No I don’t! For dinner, we went to a German pub/restaurant and had spaetzle, fried pickles, a big fresh pretzel with sinus-clearing sweet hot mustard, pork with mushroom sauce, and other delicious things. I had two German beers (Kostritzer, which is a black lager and Radeberger Pils)–typically, I’m not a fan of lagers, pilsners and such, but these were really, really good.

Now I’m tired. Good night.

A holiday moment

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Because Christmas time is the time for weeping uncontrollably.

Avatar = Battle for Terra

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As I suspected, Avatar is crazy similar to Battle For Terra, not to mention a few other films.

Skipping it. I’d rather watch BfT again.

Busy today. My son’s birthday party starts as soon as the first kid arrives, and I have to sneak out later to mail off the completed agent-draft of Man Bites World (Yay!).

Randomness for 12/18 (this is a funny one)

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1) iBox 2.0 God, how I laughed at this, and I never even saw the movie.

2) A Christmas webcomic by Chris Sims. Also with the laughing.

3) This would have been better as a single shot, but it’s still pretty cool. via TNH’s Particles.

4) EpicWin wins epically. Also via TNH’s Particles.

5) Batman as written by PG Wodehouse (and more).

“Religious symbols don’t give you superpowers.”

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In a weird quirk of fate, two audio interviews I’ve done has gone live on the same day.

One is an interview I did with Author Magazine associate editor Jeff Ayers. It’s the longer of the two interviews, but since I’m the only interviewee, it’s a shorter listen. Hear the advice I give to aspiring professional writers! Long-time readers of the blog will not be surprised to discover that it involves self-recrimination.

The other is the interview I did with Seattle Geekly. I’m the first of four authors interviewed (the others are Ben Thompson, Ken McConnell and Caitlin Kittredge,) and they cover other geeky topics, too, including the Jet City Improv Christmas Show. The world, it is small.

You always wondered what my voice sounds like, yeah? Well, it’s no great shakes, but you can hear it at either place.

Randomness for 12/16

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1) Library book overdue by 99 and a half years.

2) Humans vs. Zombies, the live game. Photos of the event. (Humans won! Yay humans!)

3) Connecting fructose and childhood diabetes.

4) And, for a different sort of unhealthy ingestion: Blood drinking 101

5) A wooden castle–built from 396,000 popsicle sticks.

6) Lawsuit seeks to remove atheist from public office. It seems North Carolina’s state constitution bars atheists from holding public office. It’s an unenforceable law, thanks to a decades-old Supreme Court decision, but it’s the basis of a suit seeking to have Cecil Bothwell removed from a city council seat.

7) In contrast to my Author’s Big Mistake post from earlier today, a hilarious book review with a very smart author response.

in which being a jerk is fun

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Okay, I wasn’t that much of a jerk on the regular human scale, but on my personal scale, I have been unusually jerkish.

First, I laughed at this Author’s Big Mistake. You can, too! It’s refreshing to laugh at stupidity, and it makes me glad I never, ever respond in any way to reviews (except for the linky).

Aside from the laughs, I acquired useful information: I hadn’t realized that Harriet Klausner occasionally posts as many as 90 book reviews a day. Now, I think less of her, assuming she is only one person.

And, just now, our manager just went around the office handing out Christmas cards. I made sure to open mine slowly, so I’d be the last one in my area to see the gift card, then exclaimed “Hey, a [actual $ value x 3] gift card!”

All heads immediately swiveled toward me, and no one was smiling. Heh.

Finally, a co-worker asked my advice about picking a stocking stuffer for her grown son, and I actually suggested my own book. Shameless! Admittedly, we did talk about a lot of other options first, but once I reminded her the option existed, she didn’t feel the need to ask me for additional ideas… which is benefit enough even if she doesn’t buy him a book.

Win a copy of CHILD OF FIRE

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Even better, win a copy of many, many, many other books on Pat Rothfuss’s blog. Here’s the blog entry where CoF is mentioned, but don’t start there.

In case you’ve been on a media fast or something, Pat Rothfuss is having a second fundraiser for Heifer’s International, a charity that provides livestock for the world’s poor. Read this FAQ to find out more along with a critique of Batman (heresy!)

Seriously, it’s a great cause, and some of the prizes are big time–signed ARCs, marked up manuscripts, critiques of unpublished novels by industry pros, and lots and lots of books. I only wish I could have sent more than one book–that was literally my last copy. (I’ve ordered more from Random House, but these things take time.)

Check it out. Celebrate the season by helping those who need it. Get book-related swag in return. Seriously, this is what the internet was created for.