Sunday, October 25, 2009

Books. Smallville. Comics. Random.

So here's a recap of the past week:
They switched us to nights, and I've not been doing much but working and sleeping. Thus the lack of updates to both blogs. In the spotlight tonight we have:
Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe Volume 5
Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
Smallville Season 1 (Episodes 1-4)

SP: I love Scott Pilgrim. The first four volumes were awesome. And the fifth is equally as awesome. However, it takes a darkened turn as Scott and Ramona's relationship is on the rocks. Also, Ramona dissappers at the end. I'm upset. Not really because she disappeared, but that the Sixth book isn't out yet, and I have to wait in a potentially fatal state of suspense until it hits the shelves. Luckily I follow Bryan Lee O'Malley on twitter and get updates on how v6 is coming along. I can honestly say, that I am addicted to Scott Pilgrim. I am sad it will be ending. But I MUST KNOW HOW IT ENDS! So there in itself is the dilemma. Right? Right.

Moon Called: Let me start with the fact that Laurell K. Hamilton opened up a whole new genre of addiction for me. With, either Sci-Fi, Fantasy or Paranormal Thriller. Whichever genre you wanna toss her brand of writing into. But I am so picky about what I read, that it takes me forever to find a new series to read. It may seem that I am not picky and I read all the time, but I really am. Quick point: I love TrueBlood, and I have the first book in the series, but I decided not to read them. Why? I can't stand the thought of having to read about Sookie and her being the main character in every book. I really don't like Sookie, and until she leaves 'Vampire Bill' and gets with Eric, I will continue to dislike her. Maybe even after then, just because she's so...cheery? Southern? I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I don't like it.

Anyways, Moon Called was excellent. It took me all of three nights at work to read it. Mercedes Thompson, the main character, is a walker. She can shapeshift and turn into a Coyote. Unlike her werewolf cousins, however, she is not Moon Called, that is, forced to shift by the phase of the moon. The book also features the fae, witches and vampires in the mix. Living alongside humans in a world very much like our own. Her character is likable and one that you can relate too. Unlike Hamilton's works, she's nothing of a detective or someone with connections. She's a VW mechanic.

She handles her own very well, but she also has her flaws. Which makes the character all the more real. Whenever she shifts, the book continues to read as if she was still human. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I like how it turned out. Patricia Briggs writes a wonderful story, and I've already purchased the next two books in the series. I believe there is four to date.

The other thing that I like about this series is that it branches off. There's a second series, The Alpha and Omega books, that run parallel to The Mercedes Thompson novels. They are set in Mercy's world, with the same characters, but with different main characters. The main character in the A and O series is a girl who was attacked and changed into a werewolf. I can't wait to get started on those.

So far it's been an enjoyable read, and I hope it continues to do so.

And Smallville: Now while some parts of smallville are a bit iffy. The graphics aren't the best, the stunts need some work, I really am enjoying it. The plots in the first four are about the same. And I'm hoping that it becomes a little more intriguing and deeper than it has been so far. The seasons run at 43.00 each. There's eight so far. So that's roughly 400.00. If I'm not convinced that the plot lines can hold after I finish season 1, I might cast off this series and pick up another one. I'm interested in Supernatural and Fringe as well. I'd like to pick up Lost one day, but not today. I;ve heard good things about Smallville, but I'm still on the line about it. After all, everyone doesn't think the same, ya know?

And for a re-cap of the day: I went exploring. I went to Anderson and found Planet Comics, which is awesome. Def the biggest comic store I have been into. I missed the Greenville Comic-Con by a few hours. It was today. I couldn't believe it. How unlucky. Or probably lucky because i would have spent to much money anyways. I also found a books-a-million and a best buy and a target. So I should be safe in the even of boredom striking. It only took me about 30 mins to get there. So I would say that Anderson is like Hickory. I only wish there were a Barnes and Nobles there as well. They have a mall, but it looked crowded since it was Sat, so I skipped out on that and went home. And baked. I burnt some cookies because I was watching Smallville. I've burned cookies before, but ever so bad and never so many. I just kept forgetting about them.

So my impulse buy of the week was Spiderman/Black Cat HC. Kevin Smith is the writer for the series and Terry Dodson took up the visual helm. I love both of them and look forward to seeing how the series turned out. I've never read any of the Kevin Smith Comics, but I am a fan of his movies. So if the series was interesting, I might have to invest some money in his batman series as well.

I've yet to decorate my apartment, or finish unpacking boxes, or any of that fun stuff that I should be doing instead of this. Truthfully I am having trouble keeping my eyes open and I have to say up for roughly another 2 1/2 hours. I have lots I need to do, but with only 1 day off a week, I can't even find a single shred of motivation to get any of it done.

I'm still debating on if I want to bring Leia up here with me. It will probably be after the first of the year if I do decide to bring her with me. I can see it happening any sooner with the way things are going. I wouldn't mind having someone to talk to, even if it is just my cat. She is, in fact, named after the Star Wars character. Because I'm a geek. Dexter is named after the character in the tv show Dexter on Showtime. Aspen was named for a comic character and Vesper was named after a James Bond Character/ Family name for bats. See? I am a total geek.

Alaska was named Alaksa, bc that's my favorite State. Stella was named that because of the book Stella Luna. My iguanas were named Calvin and Hobbes. And I already have names picked out for future creatures. Because I'm not having kids, I have to think about what to name my animals.

Well that's it for the night. I'm going to get back to reading Monster Planet. Which is the last book in David Wellington's Monster Trilogy. I love this series. The only problem that I have with it, is the origins. I understand what started it, but how did it start? Who was patient zero? How did it escape? Is it just the ones that have been bitten or touched by the infected that become zombies, or is it everyone that has died after the epidemic started? Maybe by the end of this book, I will know. Or I will have remembered if I have forgotten, either way, I must know. Cause knowing is half the battle. Right?

Monday, October 19, 2009

I'll be zombie-like tonight.

As it goes, where I work, nothing goes as planned. Nothing. The area we were working in was flooded today, with contaminated water. Then they decided that we were going to go to night shift to pull cable with the electricians, so they sent us home at 10am and told us to be back at work at 10pm to start nightshift for the rest of the week. 1 week! WTF. why only one week? Because they hate us, that's why. And then we are going back to days after we get all the cable pulled.

Someone said we might be done by friday, so that might be good. I'd like a good paycheck this week though. So the more hours, the better. I've never pulled cable before, so this will be a new gig for me. I probably won't be on here much because I'm going to spend all of my free time sleeping.

The guys that are going to nights with me are a pretty good bunch, plus getting off dayshift for a while will keep me away from some people I have been trying to avoid the best I can, Creepers, as I call them. Because they creep me out. It's hard to avoid people when you're trapped in a nuclear plant with them.

But after this week, I'll be back to days. I'm actually starting to like days. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. It probably helps I don't' actually go inside till there's work to be done, because our trailers down by the lake. But anyways.

After all this is said and done, we should get back to a pretty normal schedule and then I can actually have a life again, which would be lovely. There's alot of movies and things I need to catch up on. Well, I'm headed to bed. Awesome. g'night.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Baby Jesus hates Zombies.


I gotta say, October is my month. I mean really what better time to be a zombie lover? That's right, there is no better time, except in a zombie apocalypse, cause I know how to survive.
Working lots right now. So not much time for blogs or any other form of entertainment. I haven't seen Zombieland, or anything else for that matter. I'm so behind. But I'm in a new apartment, si I get points for accomplishing something. Go me.

Friday, October 9, 2009

De Blog of Procrastination. Books Mainly.

So basically, I'm procrastinating. And tonight writing a blog is my procrastination tool. Almost everything I own is packed up and ready to be put into the trailer in the morning. I have to get to the kitchen and a few other odds and ends. You never realize how much stuff you have until you have to move. I'm actually getting rid of a huge stack of books. I'm tired of toting them around and I haven't read them since I was in highschool. The majority of them are Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Dean Koontz. I'm pretty much past that point in my life. I still read a few Dean Koontz, and I kept the Dark Tower Series from Stephen King. I plan on reading it one day, I swear. I'm not even remotely interested in Anne Rice anymore, although I did keep three of her books in paperback. For old time's sake.

When it comes to vampire novels, there's two places I go. Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series and David Wellington's Vampire novels. Both excellent writers with refreshing ideas and more than enough action to keep me buying each consecutive book. I did read Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Saga. It was an excellent read, but I still prefer Hamilton's Vampire-Human-Werewolf stories. I feel like Twilight's completely over rated now. I picked up the book when I read an article in TIMES about it. By the time Breaking Dawn came out, I had to buy the book to just know how it ended. At the time I was happy with it. Now it just seems ridiculous (Breaking Dawn). But Meyer totally blew her fan base out of the water. If I was still 16 I would have probably felt just like the rest of the teenage girls. But I'm not. I'm 23, and young adult novels just don't do it for me.

I'm pretty picky about what I read these days. It seems like I've got a long list of books to choose from, but it takes me forever to finally pick a series. Especially if there is more than one book involved. Such as the Anita Blake series. It numbers 17 books with two set to come out next year, a novella, entitled Flirt, and a longer un-named novel. I've known about David Wellington's books for a few years, but never picked them up until a couple weeks ago. I started with the zombie trilogy. He has a vampire series, and a werewolf novel as well. Laurell K. Hamilton also has another series involving a faerie princess-detective. I cannot stand fairy stories, but I can't tear myself away from Hamilton's writing. It's addictive. Merry Gentry, the faerie princess novels, stands at seven with eight due out at the end of this year.

I also search for books involving creatures. Because everyone should know that creature features are among my top rated movies, as well as my top rated books. For this brand of writing I usually have to hit the classics by Peter Benchley, or go to Steve Alten. Alten's MEG series and The Loch are spectacular reads. Sharks and the Loch Ness are my all-time favorite creatures.

I always find books or artists in interesting ways. I bought a Hamilton book years ago in a Goodwill because the cover art looked intriguing. I didn't even realize I was a fan, until I picked up the Guilty Pleasures comic from Marvel. And I was hooked. The comics couldn't come out fast enough. I needed to know the rest of the story. So i started the series.

Same deal with Patricia Briggs, who writes the Mercy Thompson series I am starting shortly. She produced a pre-quel story with Dabel brothers publishing. The artwork drug me in. The story kept me there. Alot of times, I read reviews and find books that way. Sometimes it's because I accidentally clicked on the wrong link. I was looking for plot summaries for 100 Bullets, a comic from vertigo, and accidentally clicked on a link for 13 Bullets, a vampire novel by David Wellington. Poof! A new book. Things like that happen to me all the time. Just random chance I guess. The only book I've ever truly had trouble reading was Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I love the story of Pride and Prejudice, but, let me tell you, it can be a boring read. Even with Zombies, sometimes I just wasn't that interested. Shame on me.

So I'm sitting in the floor of my bedroom, which is now empty, save for me, the vacuum cleaner, and a pile of books. Tomorrow I move to Seneca, SC. I'm excited. I like change ever now and then. And I certainly am in need of a change. I've never lived this close to my dad before. I think it will be interesting to see how everything turns out. And I'm not too far from my best friend Sarah, who lives in Georgia. She lived in Hawaii for over five years, and I got to see her very little. It'll be nice to have her this close, even if it still is in a different state.

I suppose I should get back to getting everything downstairs. I still have to wash clothes, throw the kitchen into a box, and clean all the rooms. I was going to load things into the trailer, but I believe that can wait till in the morning.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Welcome to Facebook.

Superheros/Villains/Jonah on Facebook.

Cause we all want to know....don't we?

I'm barely making the effort today.

So, I'm pretty tired and I don't feel much like typing. I just pasted the P and P and Z review off my other blog onto here and I'll add a random link for all to enjoy.

I'm also dealing with several other problems involving random chimpanzees.

Spider Drawing guy Makes a Come Back with Oh-So-Sweet Shark Attack Drawings.

I finished reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies today. It took me forever to get through the book. It's awesome, but it's still Pride and Prejudice, ya know? The beginning is pretty boring in pride and prejudice and zombies help it along a bit. It finally picks up about half way through. Some days it just couldn't keep my attention. Of course, some days nothing can keep my attention.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Zombies on your internet

I started another blog just for Zombie Links. Cause zombies are an important part of a balanced breakfast.

http://internetzombies.blogspot.com/

Saturday, October 3, 2009

The Brothers Bloom, Last House on the Left, and Friday the 13th.

I watched the Brothers Bloom tonight. I have been wanting to see this movie ever since it came into theaters. I liked it. It was pretty original (from my knowledge), but at times it was predictable. I didn't really see the end coming. Although the entire movie was basically con after con, it probably should have been obvious. I enjoyed it enough. Probably wait till it goes on sale to buy it though. I did like the Belgian. He was probably my favorite part. Bang Bang is another one of my favorite characters. She's the one that likes to blow things up. All the characters are decent enough. It never really explains what's going on with Diamond Dog though.
Basically it's a story about a young man who can't really do much of anything unless his brother writes it out for him. In the end he realizes he can live a life without it being written and drives off into the sunset with the girl for an almost happy ending. The other brother's ending: not so happy. I guess it's symbol isms at it's best. But I don't really understand the Queen of hearts deal, unless it's some off the wall reference to Wonderland. There are a few other literary references within the movie, most are explained. The older brother apparently likes to fashion his cons after great literary works. It's not a must see movie, but it's good for a laugh or two. Like I said it was good enough, but it could have been better.

Last House on the Left. To begin with, I've never seen the original. Older Horror movies don't interest me that much, and for that matter, nether do new ones. They don't frighten me or anything like that. I'm just not into the horror genre. I think I used to be, but I can't really think of any horror movies in particular that I love that aren't science fiction or thriller before they are horror movies.
Anyways, I liked it. It's pretty deranged. The methods the parents use are pretty brutal and the rape scene was unnecessarily long. I didn't care for the microwave or the garbage disposal method of taking out the trash, but hey, their movie, not mine. If you don't know the plot, here it goes:

Set up scenes. Girl goes with parents to lake house for summer. Meets old girlfriend. Girlfriend takes some guy up on offer of Pot ( ah the horror movie no-no: Don't smoke up or you die). Pot-Boy's evil friends come home. Take girl+friend as hostage. Girl+friend try to escape. Friend dies. Girl continues to attempt escape, almost dies. Evil People go to LAST HOUSE ON LEFT. Boy discovers who parents are. Girl finds way home. Parents take revenge. Evil people die. Everyone is happy (except friend, Paige, because she's still dead....and the Cops)

There you have it. Wow. You don't even have to watch the movie now, unless you want to see lots of blood. And someone getting the Peep treatment. The mom and the dad are awfully calm about killing everyone, I believe they are some kind of tag team murder force and the daughters in on it too. Welcome to the family Justin.
Friday the 13th. I'm not sure how many I've ever seen out of the original series. I think maybe 2. I saw Jason X, and Freddy vs. Jason, I'm not entirely sure if I've seen the original Friday the 13th or not. But, after so many years, I'm still not interested. It's even got Aaron Yoo in it, who I love. And I just can't keep watching. It's actually playing right now. I just can't get into the series. Like I said before I'm not a big horror fan. It's got some scary and/or tense moments. But it's just like a gore-fest. I had a friend tell me it was awesome, so I thought I would give it a try, but I just can't force myself to like something.

If you want a typical horror movie slasher, here's you're guy. Lots of blood, weed, and of course sex. Cause the two main foreboding aspects of all horror movies are: If you do drugs or have sex, you will die. The end. If Scream taught me anything, it was that I love Matthew Lillard and Jamie Kennedy, and of course, the rules of horror movies.

Thinking on it for a bit longer, I've discovered I do own at least one horror movie, which is Halloween. I loved Halloween. Even the remake was good. I'm not sure what it is about that movie, but it's a classic, even if it is a Horror movie.
I really just want to beg Hollywood to quit remaking Horror movies, or for that fact quit remaking movies. There are a few remakes I've enjoyed. But there are far more that need to be burned with the rest of the film.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Zombie Link of the Day 2

That's right. There's a sequel. I'm going to start a new blog for these.

Today's link comes to us from FilmSchoolRejects.com and was brought to my attention by the great Bryan, who recieves offerings of bojagles sweet tea and snickerdoodle cookies in exchange for awesome tips such as this one:

Remake of 'The Crazies' by George Romero.

This is borderline zombie. Because I believe it's diease that infects them? They look like zombies, but still have conscious thought? Correct me if I'm wrong....anyone? That's what I thought. Good day.

Zombie Link of the Day

University Of Florida has a Zombie Attack Plan

Technically it's October 2nd right now, but I'm a little behind because today has been kinda off. I went to work only to be told to go home. So I've spent the evening with my dad and my step mom, Nancy. I may actually get to have a life again and have weekends off. Which would be excellent indeed.

I've read several articles today of interest. Quite a few involving books. So let's get started.

I love Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and I haven't gotten a chance to read Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters yet, but now I've heard the crossovers have finally taken a turn for the worse. It's called Little Women and Werewolves. I don't care what you do to Little Women, it's crap, and I will never read it. I hate western-ish stories. I'm talking books here. I like Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Westerns. That may be as far as my western influence goes. But anyways. I'm calling BS on whoever thought that crap up. Couldn't you have used another book? With a better story? Or maybe you guys should just go ahead and call it a day and quit the nonsense. I'm still looking forward to Seth Grahame-Smith's original release of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. I can handle that. But the book thing is getting rusty. I would have maybe at least stuck with Jane Austen novels. I love the books you've created so far, but it's over guys. Really.

Next up: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. Young Adult novel I believe. Girl falls in love with a boy who turns out to be a werewolf and they have to find a way to be together so they girl's heard doesn't get broken. I'm over it. At first I was like, well this could be good. I love werewolf novels and such and then I read the summary and marked it right back off my list. Not interested in another book that involves teenagers and supernatural. I'm on the verge of getting sick every time I hear the 'T' word. It's not that it's gone mainstream, I can handle things being mainstream. I love TrueBlood myself. But it's everywhere. It's referenced constantly and ridiculously. And people actually go into hysterics because of it. I get excited, but I don't do hysterics. I'm pretty sure some one has the T flu, because they are throwing the shit up everywhere. Nasty. Nasty. Nasty. Cover your mouth.

Ahh...something good. Here it is' George Romero is writing his own book about Zombies. Specifically, his zombies. If you don't know who George Romero is, you clearly don't understand the relationship he has to zombies. It will be titled 'The Living Dead' and will be released in 2010. Zombies have never went out of style. Sometimes they just die down for a bit and then come back with a vengeance (see what I just did?)

I'm also interested in the novel Blood and Chocolate now. The movie was alright, plot was about like any other movie. No biggie. But I'm now hearing the book was majorly different and was much better than the movie adaptation. It's on the list and I shall purchase it as soon as I finish reading the other 20 books I have.

There was also a book called Kiss of Death by Joseph Locke. At the moment I can't remember if I liked the summary or not and I'm really not in the mood to find it again. Cause I'm being lazy. And even though I woke up today at 3:00 in the afternoon, I'm somewhat tired and lack much motivation.

Alright. I'm not sure what else there is. Well, I guess that's it for tonight. There's the zombie link of the day. Enjoy. I know I considered going to UF for a brief second because clearly those people know what's up. But I dismissed the thought, because on the other hand. It's safer to travel in very small groups when dealing with epidemics of and kind. I prefer no more than 5, including myself.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

But when it comes to you It seems like I just can't find the time

It's been some amount of time since I have been able to type anything, as the fact that I am now regularly working has prevented my regularly scheduled bouts of bullshitting around. But tonight, we had a reprieve. The pipes are done, I assume they've passed inspection after numerous cut-outs, re-welds, changes to the drawings, revisions, and general fuck-ups. Now we sit and wait for the foam to be inserted into the wall so we can close out the fire watches and be given a few days off before we head back to dayshift for the remainder of our time at ONS. I hope this is wrong , as I highly wish to be on nightshift because I can not stand being on dayshift. There are way to many people here during the days and way to much stuff to do. Plus the sun can be quite irritating when I am trying to remain pale for Halloween.

Hopefully we will have a three day weekend, I am going apartment hunting on friday and have already made plans with a friend to go and see Zombieland, which I am fairly excited about. He understands that we may be a part of the few who will truly appreciate the greatness of woody harrelson and zombies. Or just zombies alone.

But apartment shopping is the main goal of this weekend. I'm moving to SC. I am very excited about this. I feel that it's time for a change. I have lived in Lenoir for a little over a year, and I'm pretty bored with it, plus it's so far from everything. I was told today at work that the crew I am currently on, is indeed staying for an indefinite period of time to work on another project, which consists of 2,000 feet of pipe, 1,300 welds, and 800 hangers. If this project goes anything like the project we are now finishing, we will be here till at 2015, well after the world ends in 2012.

I suspect this will be the case and that I will be able to attend Clemson University after the job is over. I'm not planning much for moving back to NC anytime soon. As long as things go according to planned. There has already been one minor flaw with the plan, as it concerns someone else screwing things up and not me. It was a solid plan, and it would have worked. But apparently I have some "friends", I use the term lightly, that are liars. But it's only temporary and I feel that they problem shall eliminate itself given the approximate amount of time (max. 2 months). I will do anything in my power to alleviate this problem. I will stoop to low levels to ensure my sanity stays intact in the coming months.

I haven't been able to do anything for about four weeks now, and it has made me a bit ill. I'm behind on movies, games, books, and comics. And that is never a good thing. It's taking me three weeks to read one book and I am still not done with it. I fear it will be my undoing. My list of movies to see grows ever-longer, every week. No doubt it shall fill a page by the end of the year and I will be at my wit's end.

Looking back, I see I could have prevented this problem many many months ago had I just tried to think clearly and not acted so much like my usual self. But alas, we humans are creatures of habit and I still find myself repeating said habit to this day. How devious of me. But it is my nature.

I'm expecting the next few weeks to be excellent, and if anyone tries to mess them up, trust me, you'll not want to be around when I finally flip shit on you.

On the good side, I have met an interesting boy. Finally. I hold no hopes. He could be boring tomorrow when I wake up.

That said, I have to go do the last round of the night, a NightWatchmen's job is never done. After all ...Who Watches The Watchmen?

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