Hoo Mah Moos

Hello people.

2011-10-03T10:50:00.001-07:00

To all those (all 20 of you at least) who were subscribed to this blog, go check out the new site. I thank you for your support in following this blog and now I would love you so much more if you went and subscribed at the new one.
http://hoomahmoos.wordpress.com/

Thanks again.

Migrating

2011-09-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

So I'm Migrating to Word Press. This blog will still be viewable, but not updated as much as before, which wasn't much really. I found that the new site lets me do interesting things that this one can't so you can find me at: hoomahmoos.wordpress.com.
Thanks to those of you who read me here and I hope you follow me to wordpress. See you soon.

I think I got Zombies on my brain

2011-08-22T12:40:00.000-07:00

So my Dreams have been weird lately. One of them was a portent of things to come, and the other, equally as fantastic, less likely to happen.

So I'm in this comedy club and I'm about to perform for the kings of comedy. They rule comedy nationally don't you know?I start off outside and I'm doing Marvin Summers voice. Will he be showing up tonight? Who knows. Anyway, When I get in they say I need a comedy partner. And this is what I've been saying for a while now. What should I do. It is then they show me into the green room and there is Emma Stone who agrees to be my comedy partner just like that. It's an awesome day and I tell her we are going to be the next big thing.

We go out in front of the kings of comedy and I have only seen two of them before. One of them was that weird hermaphrodite guy from The Gentleman Broncos, and the other is John Goodman who's got long grey hair and weird mingy teeth. Anyway hermaphrodite guy (I think it's Hector Jimenez) says we are going to hit it big time after we do this hilarious improvised sketch about a couple paying themselves alimony. Then we are taken around the corner where John Goodman is sitting and he pronounces our efforts a success imitating an old, fat, Marlon Brando.

That was when I woke up with the most exhilarated feeling and couldn't get the dream out of my head.

The other dream I had was holding fort in an abandoned house surrounded by Zombies with only these two vicious knives. I was one of 6 people in the sitting room as all the windows burst in and I had to defend myself.

Yeah I know I know, Emma Stone may never be my comedy partner but I've got the Zombie Apocalypse to look forward to eh?

I need to just hurry and finish reading World War Z.

Hello Again...

2011-08-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

(ready for a first line that I've used multiple times before?) "I can't believe I haven't written anything for my blog for over a month."

That's really sad. So here are some updates for you.
April got really busy. I gave presentations at UVU, graduated and walked with the Integrated Studies Banner. Xanthe came to visit (A wonderful visit that ended too soon) and I distributed all the copies I had of Alterran Tales. On top of all that I was contacted by a company named CareerStep to submit some writing samples. I submitted thinking I had nothing to lose being at Nuskin and then I had a couple of interviews and now here I am a couple of months later working as a curriculum writer for Careerstep. WOW that was a lot to happen in April along with other family things happening. So much.

It's shameful how we match sometimes. This was the worst case.

May, June, and July seemed to blend together and I'm still loving my job and glad I made the switch and I can't believe it is August. Summer is almost over.

I've been refocusing on a lot of different things. It seems I go in cycles of what I am interested in doing. I recently dropped everything to work on The Hive, my superhero Horror set in Utah. It's been fun and I have to hold my resolve because Luke, Loretta and Gretchen have been telling me off for ignoring them. I'm not sure if they are going to win this round over poor Reid Filiposen. Rictus has been calling me.

Anyway I have also been asked to write a cool little origin story for a character over at Close Call Comics That has been a really exciting process, collaborating with the creator on details and information and I'm coming up with some cool ideas that I can't wait to fully realise. Anyway Talk to you later and hopefully my presence here will be a bit more frequent.

Update on vegetarianism.

2011-04-02T07:42:00.000-07:00

I have been a flexible vegetarian for 3 weeks now. It took me a while to get started but it seemed like such a big thing for me that I just didn't know where to start.

First of all, I say flexible vegetarian as I will eat meat if we are somewhere that might require me to eat it. e.g family function or some such thing. And, as someone pointed out to me in an article, bacon is many a vegetarians downfall. It could very well be mine. I'm feeling great about my food choices recently. They are not great all the time, but they have been meat free. And while I can't say that I won't eat meat once in while I do know that i'm making health conscious decisions. Now if only I could give up some of the deserts.

I had my Birthday in March and one of the things I got was Nava Atlas' vegetarian 5-ingredient gourmet cookbook. I really like it. It has led me to some new meal favorites such as Quinoa and broccoli casserole and Peanut butter noodles. The last one is not as grim as it sounds and has a really nice blend of teryaki and honey and peanut butter.

For the most part these first forays into the book have been really simple and I've enjoyed reading through and following the directions and then sitting down to enjoy the meals. It's been a process thing. But, it's all a process thing. I'm excited for newer recipes(I've seen some on The Vegan adventures of Meggie and Ben that I want to try.) and following this more health conscious direction I'm going in.

Updates on previous X-related posts

2011-04-02T07:12:00.000-07:00

So It's been a while since I posted and I have a ton of things to say, but I'm gonna break it all up into relevant posts.

X-Men: First Class: Saw the trailer. I really liked it. Still have same reservations but now I'm excited for Banshee. Here's two reasons why.

New Mutants: Fall of the mutants.

This had some really great, satisfying scenes, but Emma stone got it right; "Not with a fizzle but with a bang," New Mutants got that the other way round in the scenes that I thought were more important. The pages featuring the entire cast of X-Men could have been replaced with more New Mutants scenes. Especially a crucial missing scene with the Remaining Inferno babies.

I can't believe Cannonball killed all of them. Especially Toko who is supposedly invulnerable. Something happened that we missed out on. I hope this is revisited later. At least Sunspot is feeling himself. His little smile at having Magma finally return his affection was amusing, but I guess they need something light after their ordeal. This story ended with a fizzle, when it could have ended with a BANG.

Everyone had at least one satisfying moment but in some cases it wasn't enough where the whole of the story was concerned.

As a last note. I'm enjoying Age of X. Excited for the shake-ups to the line-ups it will bring.

Surprise Sunrise

2011-04-02T06:42:00.000-07:00

One morning last month I woke up unable to go back to sleep (this is happening more often. I'm feeling a restlessness that I'm wasting my time on sleep when I could be doing thing's I need to or want to do). Amy had been up a few times with Tessa and I had put Riley back to bed after I heard him crying at whatever time in the early hours it was.

I walked into our dark living room at about 6:30 and the kitchen counter was glowing red. I took some pictures and then opened our blinds and took some more.

Happy Birthday Xanthe

2011-03-16T20:22:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about you. Hope you have a great day. Heres something I drew for you. She will show up as one of my main characters' Nemesis.

Love you lots.

Tarkio Balloon and what was lost.

2011-03-13T14:50:00.000-07:00

A friend in my Integrated Studies program recently made this movie. (I hope he doesn't mind my stealing this pic from his page for the purpose of this post.) I won't tell you what it is about, you should just go and see what it is about on Torben's own site, which is right here: The story behind Tarkio Balloon

However, since seeing it my mind has been racing with several things that I haven't been able to shake. (When this happens you know that you have witnessed something truly great because otherwise it would have been lost between a hundred other mundane, normal life things. At the end of the post there is a paragraph about this movie being the first in "The Lost and Found Series." I was consumed with a couple of different phrases.

"Each story spoke to us, in one way or another, and we tried to listen."

"Explore the theme of losing and finding through five remarkably diverse subjects."

"Let me know ways that you are finding what has been lost in your own lives. Here’s to your personal quests." (Bernhard)

This is what has consumed me. What was that something I lost? I can think of several things, but the obsessive, often morose and difficult one inside me keeps thinking, "Sometimes you can't find something again, no matter how hard you try. When it's gone it's gone and there is only so much searching that can occur before you realize how futile your efforts are." Is this true?

This has in turn led me to another sentence that has been rolling around in my head. "How many horrors can I create before I have to face my own?" I'm not sure in what context I mean this yet hence the depth of my thoughts and the inner battles going on inside me. I do know that I want to prove the morose one wrong so here's to finding what has been lost in my life and seeing where that leads me.

Hoo Mah Moos today? Tarkio Balloon.

X-Men: First Class, I hope ya not too cool fa school.

2011-02-08T20:44:00.000-08:00

To say I am an obsessive compulsive X-Men fan is not wrong and my the obsession continues today. I love the comics, the cartoons and all three movies. Before I go on I just need to quiet the naysayers on the quality and form of Last Stand. Yes correct, it was not the best movie, of the three, or of any other superhero movies, but I saw it (like the other movies) as a live action what-if? X-Men movie. I wasn't looking for exactness or what was in the comics (I get my comics for that), I just wanted to see some live action X-Men coolness. And that is what we got. Beast was awesome, Shadowcat was delightfully splendid and Iceman finally rocked his ice form and gave Pyro a good thrashing. These three things made Last Stand worth it. I also loved the whole "last stand" act of the movie.

Interesting aside: the first night after finishing my two-year LDS mission I watched the first X-Men movie and then sat up till almost 4 a.m. devouring the comics my mum had collected while I'd been gone.

So it is with great excitement and trepidation that I await X-Men: First Class. As much as I loved the other movies there were minor annoyances. For example, I prefer my Psylocke a little more Butterfly/Ninja/Telepath than the pitiful "shadow" (heh heh geddit?) she was in the movie. But, I digress I'm not here to talk about the other movies.

So far I am excited to see First Class.Here's some things I'm excited about.

1. Michael Fassbender. I liked him back in his Hex days, but after seeing his final scene in that "Notourious" Tarantino movie, how can you not think he's a fantastic actor?

2. Emma Frost. Yes, I thought her sadly minor spot in Wolverine was cool and I liked the SFX, but it was too little. First Class looks to be offering Emma Frost in all her glory; both powers in-tact darling.

3. No Wolverine. Yes I was entertained by his own movie, however he has never been a favourite character of mine and (forgive me for saying...or not, don't care) Wolverine is only as interesting as whoever he might be partnered/teamed-up with at any given time. Examples: Psylocke/Wolverine=great. Jubilee/Wolverine= entertaining. Rogue, Shadowcat, Armor/Wolverine=so engaging. Nightcrawler/Wolverine=fantastic. Pixie/Wolverine=oh dear. Anyone else/Wolverine=bored now. Like Gambit, he's a fan favourite holding no interest with this big X-Men fan. I actually want to see an Emma Frost/Wolverine team-up.

4. Kevin Bacon as Shaw and Rose Byrne as Moira. Can't wait.

5. An awesome looking young cast of seemingly random X-Men from all era's of the title. This fascinates me to no end.

So, yeah I am excited for this movie, but then there are some things that are putting me off.

1. All this talk from the producers of not having finished the film. It seems a lot of talk and hypeing, but I'm worried about what they are doing to make this movie a hit.

2.This:----------------------------->

Not keen on Nightcrawler's father randomly appearing. Also, not keen on Mystique stealing scenes. Yes she was awesome in the movies but she had her time, move over. Although now it just occurred to me of the reason why Azazel would be here.

3. Beast/Nicholas Hoult. Sorry not a fan of the actor and not sure what that make-up shot is all about and not sure he can top the Last Stand Beast.

So, in the end, there is no chance I will miss this film, but i do have my reservations. Here's to X-Men: First Class not disappointing me.

Oh and give me more ------------------------------------------------->

and less---------------------------------------------------------------->

Enamored with Eat PRAY Love:Part 2

2011-01-28T08:09:00.000-08:00

Before I start, I feel I have to thank Mari Lowder for her Christmas blog post. Not the only one to get scared when talking so publicly about religion. Sometimes you need to make a stand and state what you believe and I was inspired by her stand. The word "Stand" makes it sound more dramatic than the post was and than this will be but nonetheless, up to now, my life has been made up of so many smaller "stands" that this will just fit in nicely.

Click to continue reading

So, Gilbert, you have a lot to answer for. You have made me want to visit Italy and take the time to indulge in a search for pleasure without a care for anything but my own well-being (not that I think this is the best course of action for me in my life right now). Now, you inspire me to find my spiritual center and evaluate my spiritual life. And, not just evaluate it, but elevate it. Wouldn't India for four months be perfect to do this?

There is this pressupposition in NLP training that says, "You are doing the best you can, but, you can do better." This could be the pressuposition that explains my current state of affairs. Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of spending four months in India.

I recently read this quote from President Thomas S. Monson that I think helps me feel better about not being able to take off on my own four-month spiritual pilgrimage of my own.

"We need not visit the Holy Laand to feel him close to us. We need not walk by the shores of Galilee or among the Judean hills to walk where Jesus walked.

In a very real sense, all can walk where Jesus walked when, with his words on our lips, his spirit in our hearts, and his teachings in our lives, we journey through mortality."

So, just as Gilbert found out in her ashram in India, it's not as easy as it sounds to just go and find your spiritual self, (in fact according to Monson, it doesn't matter where you do it at all) just as long as you make an effort. As Gilbert found it was hard to find her spiritual center until she found something that worked for her.

One thing she mentions in the book is three factors which indicate whether a soul has been blessed with the highest and most auspicious luck in the universe.

1) to have been born a human being capable of conscious inquiry.

2) To have been born with- or to have developed- a yearning to understand the nature of the universe.

3) To have found a living spiritual master.

Gilbert believed herself to be one of those blessed,auspisciously lucky souls. So do I.

I think it is the view that I am auspiciously lucky that has made me rethink a lot of my spiritual habits. Sometimes I feel that I should just be entitled to experiences and that things should fall into my lap. This has always been my experience and view that eventually things will happen for the best. "What's for you won't go past you" and all that. However, as my recent job search has shown me. you have to put forth a bit more effort. After a few painful months of searching and stressing I have finally found a job, which...despite my having to apply and interview for, came at the right time and feels like it just fell into my lap.

But now I have to focus a bit more on my spirituality, sit in the garden and let the mosquitoes bite, and take a step forward rather than just let things float as I am prone to do.

So what do I do?

1. Start being a bit more thankful for my Heavenly Father and my Saviour Jesus Christ.

2. Read and pray more than I do. As the presupposition goes "you're doing the best you can, but you can do better" right?
3. Try being more active in priesthood, rather than the sometimes cynical, arrogant and stand-offish Brit in the sea of Americans in my chorum. This doesn't help me make new friends and doesn't help me feel as part of the group as I sometimes want to be.
4.Share my testimony more. Because I do believe I am in the right place at the right time, despite one of my self-destructive alters.
I am a Latter-day Saint. I know God lives and his son Jesus Christ and love them and am thankful for them. I know that if I do all I can I will return to them. I know Joseph smith saw them in person and were directed by them to start the church and to bring forth the Book of Mormon, a book that I love more than even Stephen Kings The Dark Tower:book 7. I know it is only through my Heavenly Father that I am where I am today and only through my Saviour that I will get where I need to go.

Thanks for reading. The third and final part of this mini-arc is coming sometime soon.

No Ordinary Fan

2011-01-21T18:31:00.000-08:00

Heroes. I loved that first episode. It was so exciting to see the different characters discover their fantastic abilities and then interact with each other. Season 2 started and then so did the writer's strike. This is the point where, in the eyes of many, Heroes started going downhill. However, I stand by my conviction that Heroes had not gone downhill, just in another direction. I loved season 1. I loved season 2 and as more of the characters began converging on each others storylines and interacting, the more rapt I became.

Season 3 came and I began to bore of the same characters but despite those characters I enjoyed the show.

I felt that many characters storylines had run their course. NBC believed otherwise.

Q: How could you possibly have a show without Hiro, Claire, Suresh and Tracy (or whatever incarnation)?

A: How do you know if you don't try?

Oh well too late for that now.

This was about the time when all that praise for the show turned into something almost opposite. It became popular to not like Heroes. The web was full of naysayers and anti-Heroes bandwagoners wanting to make their voices heard against my heroes (and it really was MY Heroes, the one show written and produced specifially with me in mind).

All that said, Heroes continued to be that show I loved despite certain characters refusing to die. "Yeah I'm looking at you, Claire, Sylar, Noah and Suresh." By the time the last season aired, the damage had been done, which is a shame as Heroes got considerably better in this season. Heroes was cancelled and I wondered what would take its place.

Enter, No Ordinary Family. Oh, No Ordinary Family, you came at just the right time. Now this show wasn't given the same media fanfare, and still hasn't, but it should be. While the first episode wasn't great, it did give us an origin story that introduced us to all the main characters however slightly forced. But, I was willing to accept them, thanks to Vic Mackey and the beloved Darla who have great chemistry despite what others might say.

As for the other characters I immediately fell in love with Katie and George provided a fun sidekick. Now at first I was concerned about the kids. Both of them came off as slightly annoying but I am glad I stuck with them.

An Aside

I read a review of the show that said both kids were "unbelievably obnoxious and precocious teens most concerned with cracking wise and using unbelievable dialogue." While this dialogue is present, I don't find it that noticeable or annoying. Not as noticeable as Lorelei Gillmore's usual dialogue

(which I quite admire and wish I could emulate at the drop of a hat. Oh how I'd love to spew dialogue in real life as though I had scripted it myself for any and every possible occasion and occurence).

Anyway, I am glad I stuck with the show. Both our resident Genius and Telepath have really grown on me. Both super kids have made a lasting impression on me, especially Daphne (who's powers I want) who's tense/exciting showdown with the show's main supervillain was superb.

I find this show exciting, funny, tense and action packed with enough mystery, romance and drama to be my number 1 new show this year. Of course it had to be on at the same time as Glee but thanks to ABC free streaming episodes the lonely hole left behind by Heroes is now filled by something much better.

Hoo Mah Moos? No Ordinary Family, you are.

What'll I Do?

2011-01-15T20:06:00.000-08:00

Tessa Carrie Cook

2011-01-08T20:16:00.000-08:00

Today was Tessa's 2 week check-up. It sounds weird, two week check up. Well really it hasn't quite been two weeks, that will be this Tuesday, but I think we are still in that first haze of adjustment transitioning from having only one child to two children and that may continue for a while.

Tessa did really well despite having to give blood, be stripped down, weighed, measured and evaluated. She is now about 21 inches, weighs 7 pounds 10 ounces and is getting over her jaundice nicely.

Right now, Tessa is having lotion applied after healthily chowing down on a boob, and we are all happy and content. Happy New Year right?

Enamored with EAT, Pray Love:Part 1

2011-01-06T12:30:00.000-08:00

While looking on my sister-in-Law's bookshelf recently, I found Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love. It was in pristine condition. Normally I would take this as a sign that no one had read it, but this was my wife's family we are talking about and to blemish a book with signs of having been read is a big NO-NO. In my own family books are weathered with white bended spines and littered with folded-down corners. You know they have been read.

I took the book down from the shelf and it appeared to be new. I asked Jill if it was good. I had seen the trailer for the film with Julia Roberts and had a vague interest in the book not really knowing what it was about. Jill told me she had not been able to get into it. She had borrowed it from my mother-in-law who hadn't been able to get through it either. I borrowed it and I am glad I did.

So let's start with Eat... and I'll post later on Pray and Love sequentially.

Eat...
Why did I love this section? I'll tell you exactly why.

I love to eat. This is very likely one of the reasons I like this book, so far. I fell in love with her pursuit of pleasure through culture and food.
I ate up this first section quick-smart with the desire to live what she describes as "the pleasure of doing nothing." Am I a lazy person? I can be. Do I desire a simpler life with the least amount of hassles as possible? I do. Would I like to spend several months in a foreign country eating up the culture? You betcha I would. Gilbert showed me this was possible, not that I will (or can) follow in her footsteps but I'd love to.

I loved several parts of the Italy section. I loved Thanksgiving, Pizza in Naples, visits to Venice (which gave me a very fresh view of the place that is supposed to be one of the most romantic places on earth), and Gilbert's simple, egg/asparagus lunch. All these moments made me wish I was right there experiencing what she was writing about in person.

This brought out the desire to write about food and enjoying food. The only drawback is that I am one of the fussiest eaters on earth. When I was young there was a point where the only food I would eat was potato, Yorkshire pudding and Sweeties. Mmmmmm, Sweeties.

Anyway, I now eat a whole lot more and would like to experience a fuller palate and be healthier at the same time. I've even been mulling over a vegetarian period, inspired by several friends. My Brother-in-Law recently became somewhat of a vegan, it's slightly modified as he is so active and has been losing more weight than his wife is comfortable with but am I inspired. You bet I am.

The Vegan Cooking Adventures of Meggie and Ben. Check out this blog. Meggie writes everything as it was only second nature for vegan food to be the lushest food you will ever put in your mouth. This is counter to how I have seen vegan food in the past. I am really contemplating having a no meat spell and seeing how it works. This will take a lot of preparation I feel.

One of my capstone advisor's Erin just started a personal health blog and I am totally inspired. I'm not sure to what yet, but I desire a life change. Friends of ours the Smileys brought us dinner last night as my wife Amy gave birth to a beautiful girl, Tessa last week. The meal was, as far as I could tell vegetarian. There was cheese ravioli with small cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and red onions on top of a tomato and herb sauce. There were small herbed rolls and a Caesar salad. This was topped off with donuts which we all gobbled up gratefully and Riley had been given some strawberry powder to add to his milk. This meal was wonderful and while I don't know how healthy it was, apart from the donuts, felt really healthy. Again, another nudge to this healthier lifestyle.

All this instigated by reading the first section of Eat, Pray, Love.

And while we are on the subject of good food, here's a pic I found of one of my favorite meals.

Hoo Mah Moos? "Eat..." You are.

Tessa Cook

2011-01-06T10:43:00.000-08:00

More pics to come. Heres a teaser.

The Hive

2010-12-22T19:22:00.000-08:00

I have decided that the story I named The Hive, will be the first LDS themed Superhero/Horror tale I will attempt. Work has begun on the young adult novella. Here are some pics I did.

The Rise and Fall and Rise and Fall and Rise of The New Mutants

2010-12-19T15:40:00.000-08:00

Here’s my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to Secret Wars II. You sucked…but you featured the The New Mutants. It was fascination at first sight. Before Secret Wars, I was a collector of British comics, Get Along Gang and Masters of the Universe comics. I feel it was with The New Mutants that I graduated. Who was this small band of kids that the Beyonder used to take on the whole Marvel Universe. A few years later I picked up the X-Men: New Mutants graphic novel and the first issue of the X-Men: Mutant Massacre arc and was instantly hooked.

The Rise

Cannonball, Wolfsbane, Karma, Psyche and Sunspot were the original team, but it was only after Magma, Cypher Magik and Self-friend Warlock had appeared that I had started reading so there was a lot to catch up on in between that first New Mutants graphic novel and the issue I had picked up. I lapped up everything I could, the Demon bear and Nova Roma sagas, the wonderful, wonderful Legion, and the Hellions. I loved the New Mutants. I loved the youthful natures of the characters. I was in the same age group as most of them and just loved (and was a bit jealous) that they got into the adventures they did. These were my New Mutants. I particularly liked Cannonball, Psyche, Cypher, Warlock and Magik. I was rapt by everything they did.

The Fall

“The Fall of the Mutants” arc brought us the first tragic death in the team. Up until this point people had died but never had it been so close and painful. Cypher saved Wolfsbane from a bullet which opened so much drama and mourning, especially for me. At that young age I had not really experienced the concept of death and this was tough for me especially the issue where a heartbroken Warlock is trying to process what had happened. By this point, the New Mutants were under Magneto’s charge and the fallout from their disobeying him ended in tragedy.

More adventures of note brought the New Mutants to space to save Sam’s girlfriend Lila Cheney, To Asgard and also through the Inferno where they teamed up with the X-Terminators. Boom-Boom and Ricter subsequently joined the team, but then the “Big Fall” came. It was aided by several other, smaller ~~fails~~ falls.

1. Magic was de-aged and consequently left.

2. Psyche/Moonstar/Dani left and became a Valkyrie.

3. Cable arrived. I know he has his fans, I wasn’t one of them. It disturbed me to learn he’d be sticking around.

4. Rob Liefield. Now, Liefield actually increased the popularity of this book when he took it over, but his popularity whistled right over my head. I’m not going to rant about his art. Suffice it to say, I didn’t like it. Case in point; 13-year-old, big-breasted, Amazonian, Wolfsbane. What the Hell? I still have a problem with certain characters that should be a certain age, portrayed as older more athletic versions by some artists. Yeah I’m look at you Jubilee, Pixie and more recently Indra.

5. Warlock died and The New Mutants comic broke me. I don’t think I’ve ever been as upset over a comic book as I was with issue #95. I refused to read the book any longer. My focus now rested solely with the X-Men. Having perused the last five issues recently and the first few issues of (in my opinion) the truly dreadful X-Force; I now know I was correct in my decision and that it wasn’t worth my time.

The Rise…Again

When I first heard they were re-launching The New Mutants with the original cast I wasn’t interested at all, but then my curiosity got the better of me. Picking up the first issue I was nicely surprised. So many great things about this issue and so many emotions. I was instantly drawn in by Karma on active X-Men duty. I really enjoyed the dialogue and team dynamic between Cannonball, Magma and sunspot and the arrival of Magik.

I had this odd feeling of camaraderie with them as though I had survived alongside them and here we were together again. I was chilled by Magik’s conversation with Magma and then overwhelmingly excited when Legion popped out of the box. (In my mind, Legion = fantastic. I could have read a whole issue of him fighting Nimrod sentinels using different personalities. Those few pages in the Second Coming crossover just weren’t enough.) I was equally excited at both Warlock and Cypher’s return. The new take on Cypher is just genius. Now I can’t wait for the reunion between them all and Wolfsbane, but who knows when that will happen.

Fall of The New Mutants

I loved this arc and I have to admit, I always did wonder what happened to the Inferno babies. It’s unfortunate that this is their fate, indoctrinated slaves to the military having suffered through forced survival in Limbo. Zeb Wells is doing a bang-up job and I’m sad to read he only has two more issues.

Some things I have enjoyed.

1. Cannonball and Moonstar’s budding relationship, which I am afraid will not last due to some unforeseen tragedy.

2. The Inferno babies grown up. There are some really interesting characters there. I’m not sure if any of them will survive, but I am looking forward to seeing the defeat of at least three of them. Two of them are already dead thanks to Face and Karma. I don’t miss either of them.

3. The conversation between Magma and Magik from the first issue finally resulting in the Sunspot/Magik conversation about Magma’s future demise.

4. Cypher. His dialogue is great. I just can’t wait for him to gain the upper hand over Trista.

5. The revelation that Magik didn’t come back for the whole team, just Karma.

I have to say I have been antsy since I put down the conclusion to this arc knowing that I would have to wait a whole month to find out what will become of the New Mutants, The Inferno babies and Project purgatory. This is the excitement I felt as a child first reading The New Mutants. I just couldn’t wait and now I have the same problem. While I consistently enjoy X-Men and X-Men Legacy I don’t always feel I am waiting with baited breath for the next issue. Not so with this arc of The New Mutants.

The Rise of the New Mutants

So The New Mutants will rise again, but which ones? If Magik is to be believed, not everyone will survive. Magma is already on that list and while nothing is set in stone, things could very easily happen differently from the future Magik came from. And can she be trusted? Really? She hasn’t done anything truly noble recently that would make me trust her. I think Limbo has taken its toll on her. Also, if this arc is the whole reason she came back what will she do afterwards…if she survives?

I so want Cannonball and Moonstar to have some happiness together, but is their romance a doomed one? We know Moonstar can be a hard case, but she is outmatched more so than ever, has a broken arm and has been tortured.

Legion Legion Legion. Come on Legion show us the hero(es) inside. I so want Legion to come to The New Mutants aid. I actually want him to join the team. I think that would be an awesome dynamic to the team. I’m also hoping that maybe there is room for some of these Inferno babies to return to Utopia. I’m really intrigued by Bob and Toko.

Either way, I am definitely sold on this current run on The New Mutants.

Okay heres a pic of Sunspot too.

TruBblEs ov tHe haRt kyNd.

2010-12-10T09:51:00.000-08:00

Click to continue.

Clashing Souls Project

2010-12-03T21:37:00.000-08:00

Here's another teaser. This is a different project to The LDS Horror series which I will post on at another time. But, for the sake of posting I am putting these images up. Just some beginning sketches of the main characters and a few others that will show up later.
This project was originally a fan fiction that I was very excited about but then a couple of different friends advised that I should not waste my time with fan-fiction and concentrate on my own characters. I took the advice and re-imagined the fan fiction with my own characters that I had forgotten about fifteen years ago. Well This group of characters were named the Clashing Souls and I could never figure out what to do with them ...until now. My imagination has sky-rocketed with these guys and so here they are.

Meredith

Meredith is my main character who will go through a hell of a lot to retrieve missing parts of her mind before temporal insanity sets in. These parts of her mind have been embedded in the essences of several individuals throughout a futuristic England. She's a sorceress, a conjuror even, and is trying to figure out who she is and why she woke up without her mind in a crater in the middle of a ravaged, magic diseased Cambridge.

Rado

The first individual Meredith meets is Rado (Pronounced Rah-Doe). He is an oddball teen who has trouble staying solid. He is a holographic entity and can make others transform into holograms which can be extremely painful. He saves Meredith from being mugged and then sticks by her out of a sense of duty to her protection.

Perce

Perce and his girlfriend are being blackmailed by a nasty individual. Perce hires Rado to do some research on the individual and to save his girlfriend and he. Perce has telepathic powers that can change other peoples perception of reality.

In reality Perce, Rado and Pulse are environmental terrorists and freelance spies.

Titania.

Tarni is Perce's European Girlfriend who has the power of short range teleportation.

She doesn't speak English..or any other known language but can communicate with the telepathic Perce. Not much is known about her.

Solly

Solly is the fourth hero to join the team. She was a Star Parah's School of Protection and has the ability to Solidify Air and water in to any shape or function she desires. She is younger than the others and wants to be a bodyguard when she is older. She soon finds herself running with the team after her school is destroyed.

Grennian

Will show up in the 2nd arc titled Brokers. Grennian is an amnesiac demon hybrid with a chaos field that makes things happen for no apparent reason. Of course there is no control of this ability. He is searching for someone or something. He thinks he's lost his sister and girl friend.

Efi

Efi is one of the targets of quantum assassins. He is a genius teenager who can learn...and has learned everything he thinks he needs to know in life. To aid in the gathering of knowledge he sees portions of the immediate and far future to prepare his mind and body in the learning of new knowledge. He is arrogant and infuriating and will remove himself from any harm he predicts in his visions.

Levi

Levi is a private investigator with the ability to change her own field of gravity enabling her to float, and fly at varying speeds. She joins the team in the 3rd arc titled Ripper.

Vesper

Vesper is Grennian's missing Girlfriend who wields the elemental force of wind. However, she is also amnesiac and must have travelled through time with Grennian. She is a birdlike humanoid who's blond hair grows amongst bright colourful feathers from her scalp and forehead. Despite everything that will happen in that arc she will not be as amnesiac as everyone thinks and has a lot to hide.

LDS/Horror themed superhero Teaser.

2010-11-20T12:28:00.000-08:00

Arden Ericksen

Reid Filiposen

Sally Roe

These are three of my main characters who will be appearing in my horror/LDS themed superhero series. And if that line doesn't intrigue you,...then perhaps you just aren't interested in a horror/superhero series in an LDS setting.

Letter to someone I admire.

2010-09-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

Dear Gretchen,

I thought i'd drop you a line to say how much I love and admire you.

Sure, your face is the polar opposite of symmetrical, (same with your boobies) your lazy left eye is always looking elsewhere, you're overweight and flabby. You don't dress your age or era. In fact I'm not sure you dress anyone's age or era but that's beside the point. You're rude, abrupt, sarcastic, socially awkward and think others would be better off listening to you.

To be honest I don't know how people can stand to be around you...well actually I'm not being honest because I do. You possess qualities I wish I had. You are honest to a "T" and are not afraid to speak your mind. You're naturally funny and not afraid of being so at any moment no matter the consequences. You're also lucky this has never gotten you into trouble.

Gretchen, I admire you because although I know you have a lot to deal with, personal demons and real life physical ones too, you live as though you've never known fear. You uphold the right, you fight evil, even when you hold evil within you. You are selfless and are not afraid to help those in need before yourself. You are one of my visions of what a true hero is. And while the mocking is all in good fun, (I wrote you that way after all) I am saddened by your true strength because it is not strength I have myself; I can only write of it through you.

Loz

Saw this video today and thought it was really interesting.

2010-09-01T06:50:00.001-07:00

http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/#115+Thorpe+Way,+Cambridge+CB5+8,+UK

Favourite Time of Day

2010-08-31T19:52:00.000-07:00

I don't think there's enough laughter in the world. Any time there is laughing or laughter and fun is being had by all, those are my favourite times of day. I should seek after them more, search out the opportunities to create laughter.

However if I did that, they would be cheap, annoying, insincere and pointless moments.

So when those moments come naturally, I embrace them and laugh. I try not to worry about how it sounds, or who can hear, or what others may think, but just open my mouth and...

BOOM.

I found this today in my picture files. I'd made it for my little sister B, but hadn't sent it to her. check out after the break to enjoy.

Journal Challenge

2010-08-30T19:17:00.000-07:00

So I took the challenge from a friend to do a 30 day blogging challenge. As well as everything else going on in my life right now, i thought this might be a nice escape from everything.

So today was day 1 and here's my entry to the prompt, "Who are you?"

More Puppies

2010-08-22T19:20:00.000-07:00

Okay so here are a couple of the final pages.

ALMOST DONE!

Puppies

2010-08-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

Puppies is the last story featured in my anthology, "Alterran Tales." It has been interesting completing this story as I never expected that I would be drawing or illustrating it in anyway. I knew I had a view of how I wanted my Villain and my hero to look but apart from that anything was possible.

When it looked like I would be taking over on art duties I got very scared. I needed something very different from all the other art styles in the graphic novel and I didn't know if I could actually pull that off. Well below are some process pieces to a story that isn't anywhere near finished but it's been fun doing it.

So hopefully "Puppies" will be finished this next week and I'll be able to input it into InDesign. Yeah! I am so close to finishing with academic life I can taste it.

Life on the go..

2010-08-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

A lot of things have happened over the past few weeks. I've been finishing my capstone project which happily, the end is near. Not that I haven't enjoyed it, but it combined with everything else has kept me more than busy. I'm looking out for that light at the end of the tunnel and if I hadn't missed the Graduation deadline, I'd be graduating with a BA in Integrated Studies, Analytic Communication/English Creative Writing this month. Oh Well nothing to be done about it now.

Last week I had the photo shoot for one of my last stories "What'll I Do?" This is the penultimate story in my Graphic anthology. I was really stressed about getting a photographer I could actually work with and models who would be good sports and let us slash their necks. I found both, and others who were willing to help out where needed. I am so grateful to everyone because if the first couple of proofs I've seen are anything to go by, the project is going to look awesome.

My last story "Puppies" hit a snag when I lost the illustrator for it. So i have now re-taken over the reigns of this project. Little Orchid will find her prey.

Job hunting is a bust. I just can't find anything suitable. I either am not interested, don't have the right qualifications or the hours are just crappy. I'm hoping and praying something comes along that will be a good fit.

Also this weekend we were planning to refit our bedroom closet. The thought behind this was to consolidate space. Right now Amy has the bedroom closet to herself and I share Riley's bedroom closet with him which we refitted a while ago. This should be an interesting transition, especially Amy who is having to share a bit less than half of her closet with me.

To coincide with the DIY nightmare ( and the prospect of me with a hammer and drill) some crazy woman crashed into our parked car. Pretty much wrote off the car and our storage shed. No one was hurt apart from her insurance, but now we have to clear out the storage before the building falls down. The roof looks like it might come down. Anyway during all the cleaning sorting and moving last night the sun was starting to set and everything was this murky gold colour and th sky was just awesome. I stopped to take a couple of seconds before Amy had me cleaning Rileys new Big Boy Bed. Here are the photos and the corrected ones.

Can't wait for this show come Autumn.

2010-07-18T19:41:00.000-07:00

Leper Chapel Dreams.

2010-07-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

“I am at home, on the beach front, but it is not the home I remember. The forest behind where my beautiful little straw hut used to sit has been destroyed to make way for high rising concrete buildings. Cold. Uninviting. Not like my lush jungle full of tropical smells and sights. The beach is crowded with homes. Multiple levels of apartment blocks and wooden walkways linking all the buildings rise up out of the sand. I cannot even see the sky and it saddens me that my childhood memories of soft white sands and topaz waters rife with wildlife and coral has been destroyed. A minha casa, a minha bela casa. What has become of my home? What has become of my ocean? All that seems to be left of it as far as the eye can see is light grey sand and rock.

Hundreds of people are out on the sandy waterless beach; smiling and chatting, out for their midday walks. There is excitement in the air. Something is happening out at sea and people want to see what it is. The throngs are bustling and slowly making their way out to sea to find out more and to be the first to view the amazing sight. I walk amidst them, following them all like a sheep following its flock. After walking for quite a while I see something very odd looking on the horizon. It is a small stone construct in the middle of the dry ocean. As I near the bizarre sight I see it is a small chapel. The chapel in which we now sit.

As I near the chapel I see another amazing sight. There seem to be humanoid figures walking slowly around the building. Some of them are making their way nearer to the crowds who have stopped a few yards away from the figures. I manage to make my way through the throngs. They stand there watching the humans who are watching them back. They are ethereal beings who look so sad. As sad as I am at what has become of my home and my world. I feel them within me. I feel their pain and they in turn feel mine. They know I am near and some of them come closer to the living to try and find me. The people nearest to them fall back and a murmuring waves across the landscape, mingling with the dry arid air.

The noise of the people around me is tremendous. It is a cacophony of so many different sounds that my head starts to pound. I can feel the temperature rising. Oh the heat. I can feel my face flush with warmth and I don’t know what to do to stop myself from over heating.

The spirits suddenly start placing their hands over their ears and I can hear something else, over the noise of the people. It is a low rumbling sound, a roaring in fact and not a manmade roaring. It sounds like some kind of waterfall. Something rumbles and this time it actually moves the sand we stand on and everyone stops still. There is a moment of quiet and the spirits are starting to float towards me. Then the roaring sound becomes audible to everyone, and some people start to wail.

Que coisa louca. I see in the distance a huge wall of water slowly moving towards us. It creates a new horizon and people start to panic, but most of them stand still. Silence comes to those who run and all I can do is smile. My home will be mine again. This purifying water will cleanse the islands. The spirits are now swirling around me; their faces are so full of hope and power. Their eyes seem to bore into me, overcoming my body. I let them. They fill me, possess me. I will do their bidding. The miles high tidal wave of water smashes through the people and through me, but where their bodies are crushed and obliterated, mine seems to float through the onslaught. Você vem e cai. I will have my home back.”

X-Men Day

2010-07-07T09:25:00.000-07:00

So it's X-Men day tomorrow and I have concerns for this new book. I ordered it just out of curiosity. I do not have the money to add another X-book to my pull list, especially when Legacy is running in a totally agreeable direction for me and the pure excitement of "what next?" for Uncanny will keep me going indefinitely.

So far, apart from this great image at the side:--------------------->

the previews for X-Men 1 have not really done it for me.

Some thoughts:
1) Second Coming is not even over yet. With most of the characters I care about on the front cover of X-Men 1, it kind of takes away any fear and mystery and sense of danger that the last couple of parts to Second Coming could have possibly had. This annoys me to no end. While I do not know the end, I do know that Bastions threat has been severely negated and his coming demise or dismissal is definately on the cards.
Okay, I know the villains will, more often than not, be defeated but there has to be that element that makes me question the X-Men's failiure for at least a moment. Bastion defeated Rogue and Killed Nightcrawler in the same few pages with ease. Can the rest of the X-Men fare any better?

2)The Death of Dracula.
I loved this one shot. It renewed my faith in the vampires in the Marvel Universe. I mean Dracula was defeated by the X-Men the last time they tangled, but this threat seems to be an even bigger threat. This isn't just one lone lord, it's most of the tribes of vampires. I think Janus is a strong enough character to have his own book. Maybe I don't have enough money to buy it monthly but he deserves a shot.
Now, what does Janus' little adventure and betrayal have to do with the oncoming Mutant/vampire species war arriving in stores tomorrow?

3) Paco Medina's art. While it looks good I'm concerned with the boobs. For instance, Pixie.

Arr look at her. 13 year-old, cutesy little Welsh girl. She's never been my favourite character and she only piqued my interest when Magic ripped out a piece of her soul. but how does this little girl become the womanly boobalicious monstrocity below?

Paco cannot be totally blamed, he wasn't the one who changed this image. I think we have Greg Land to blame for that but still I want some kind of aknowledgement that there are many teen body types and don't all have to be the wonder woman body type. She's about 13 years old!!! Honestly.

And don't even get me started on the Milo Manara.... I know this artist in the past has served a totally different audience, I'll leave you to guess what kind.

I can't properly judge this book until I've read it but, I digress, I'm interested in Curse of the mutants but I want the end of Second Coming first.

I am an Avenger

2010-06-29T11:51:00.000-07:00

Here's me in the red circle in Last Months Avengers #1

Ultimate Fixx Preview Character 3

2010-06-27T18:37:00.000-07:00

Vincente

Coming Soon

2010-06-22T21:10:00.000-07:00

1/1/11 1/1/11 1/1/11 1/1/11 1/1/11 1/1/11 1/1/11

Mah Maaaaah

Second Coming...Again.

2010-06-18T19:02:00.000-07:00

So I think there are only three more parts to the Second Coming crossover and there have been some interesting events. Legion is one of my favourite parts so far but more on him later. Lets look at some of the casualties so far.

Hellion lost his arms which was kind of unexpected. As was Karma losing a leg at the spikes of Cameron Hodge. I was equally disturbed at his transformation from human being to robotic nightmare freak.

Colossuss got overpowered by five or so Nimrod sentinels and i'm now really intrigued as to how this kind of injury, in armoured form, heals. Anyone care to give me an explanation or guess, feel free.

Now the scene where Ariel, Wolverine and X-23 were blown up by a fighter jet was pretty cool. i think it was a narrow miss for Psylocke, Colossuss and Rogue because I'm not sure they would have survived.

There were some great scenes in the current chapter. I loved Cyphers chat with the Exo-suit and Legions battle with the sentinels was just awesome. I know we only got to see two of his personalities but I was itching for more. I just hope they don't neutralize him too soon. he's got over a hundred more personalities.

Now the big surprise was Nightcrawlers death. I knew it was coming. It was either him or Rogue and from previews for July comics I saw Rogue in the arms of Magneto so that kind of took away the mystery but this was one of the most tragic, heart wrenching moments.

Yes, I said heart wrenching. this was a sad moment for me and it fit Nightcrawlers gallantry and religous belief to a Tee. The way he asked for God to strengthen him for one last teleport and against all odds, he manages it. This scene, while hard as a Nightcrawler fan, is why I love comics. Second coming has taken me on this whirlwind ride and I can't wait for next weeks installment.

If you are a fan of the X-Men and great story telling, you need to be reading this.

Ultimate Fixx: Preview Character #2

2010-06-16T11:40:00.000-07:00

Ultimate Fixx Preview Character

2010-06-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

5K's an stuff.

2010-06-06T19:36:00.000-07:00

So lots of things have happened this last few weeks, none of which involved my actually finding a job which is a bit disconcerting but I'm actively looking so what do you do?

Anyway, the family ran the Springville 5K as we do every year and I found that i am even less out of shape than I was last year, and last year I had a full blown sinus infection. I ran and ran and didn't stop running and finished with a time of 33 minutes. Yay me. Later in the day I was seriously ill and not feeling good at all. It seems I pushed myself too much.

I'm feeling better now and have sworn that i will get into shape as soon as it is physically possible. So here I am publishing my goodwill on exercise and the getting fit of me. Rah.

My writing group started back up, and on Thursday I managed to get some really great feedback on a horror story I wrote called "Virgin Cocktail" which may not be the title for long. I love writing group. I'm so inspired by everything I got to read of theirs also.

Second Coming

2010-05-08T16:55:00.000-07:00

Okay for you comics fans this doesn't actually sound so biblical. It's the title of Marvel's current big summer crossover.This image isn't actually from this saga but the one following it but it still fills me with excitement. This Crossover has been amazing so far.

So, when I started this post before I went on me hol's to Disney Land with the family and in that time something tragic happened in the second coming storyline. While trying to get the supposed mutant messiah "Hope" back to Utopia in the San Francisco Bay, Rogue and Nightcrawler are intercepted by Bastion.

Both Rogue and Nightcrawler put up a fight but Nightcrawler is tired from teleporting them across the country and is weak. Rogue battles Bastion but even with the collective powers of Wolverine, Colossus, Angel and Psylocke, she is still defeated. Then in a last ditch attempt at saving Hope, Nightcrawler tries to teleport her away but Bastion again intercepts the teleport and Nightcrawler reappears with Bastions arm through his chest. Nightcrawler then says, "Lord, in this time of need, strengthen me. and teleports the last long distance and appears on Utopia's shores.

Now I know death in comics is quite a fluid thing but for some reason this death seems more permanent. Now I felt the same way when Vargas killed Psylocke and she returned, but still this feels different. This whole storyline has upped the ante and the X-Men really seem like their backs are against the wall. With approximately only 198 mutant on earth, this crossover has already seen two deaths (although Ariel you were not even on my radar and unfortunately I cannot be expected to care if you got 'blowed up' with Wolverine and X-23. Sorry).

So with Nightcrawler gone I had the chance to reflect on his past adventures and I have to say I preferred the Nightcrawler from the Excalibur days so heres one of my favourite pics of him.

Nightcrawler, I'll miss you. You have always been the heart, soul and spirit of the X-Men. Nightcrawler, because of you I have swashbuckling dreams and always wanted blue fur, a tail and be able to wield a rapier with flare.

Hoo Mah Moos? X-Men authors as always you are my muses.

p.s. these images don't belong to me and are property of Alan Davis and Marvel comics. Mah mah.

Walk the Walk

2010-04-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

I have been inspired by my older sister to exercise more and actually do something good for others. I'm not quite sure what that will be yet, but it is on my mind. The last few months I have lived in a blissfully selfish cloud doing only what I wanted to do and only focussing on family, my internship and immediate concerns (perhaps it's been longer than a few months.). Anyway Jodi is set to do the Playtex Moonwalk in London on May 15.

You can check out more about this at the link below.

http://www.walkthewalkfundraising.org/alex_and_jodi

On other news, my Internship ends this Friday. This makes me sad as I have greatly enjoyed it. I have several articles I need to finish and some other tid-bits to complete. Everything has gone extremely fast and I still have no idea what will happen to my family and I come August.

Before then I have a trip to DisneyLand, Capstone II class to take and my Capstone II project to complete. Fear, excitement and trepidation in equal parts. Rah Bang Bang

Well here are some of the photos from our intern photo shoot.

All the Interns in my office.

At the pool of reflection.

Us and the building in which we work.

And Again Bang

Heather, Lauren, Marianne, Melissa, Lindsay and I.

And Again.

And MAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!

Validation

2010-04-26T08:34:00.000-07:00

I Saw this today and I love it. It just did what it set out to do and is definately worthy of a Hoo Mah Moos award. Validation, you are my Media Muse for today.

That Boyish Smile

2010-04-11T19:45:00.000-07:00

Okay two things that actually fall under that title, Riley and my short story that is becoming a novella.

First things first heres a couple of the most recent pictures of Riley.
He's growing up so fast. Rah I said it. Such a parent thing to say but hey Steven Fry said something about cliche's, for the most part, always being true. Anyway I love these photos of my wonderful son.

By the way for anyone interested I'm starting a new non fiction project to help me come to terms about my life, and ala Dawn French in Dear Fatty will be using the letter format to write a continuing series of letters to my son. It will have guest posts from some special people, and will hopefully be eye-opening engaging and insightful at the same time. So "Dear Riley..." has been started and will run indefinitely.

So, "That Boyish Smile" has become something bigger and quite
exciting for me. I never knew that the story I created over 15 years ago would finally find its place.

For those of you who read the short story in the Touchstones book or elsewhere, the other characters who become Raz McKenzie's prey are really coming into their own. I'll add images to this blog later.
These are just two of my current projects right now.

updates

2010-03-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

So it’s been a while. Like last year even. That is really bad. It’s like all my creativity shut down for a while and it took my internship and these wonderful Intern Enlightenment sessions to get me back into my groove. Thank’s Dan Hogan for the 7 chapter

Capstone 2 looms ahead and there is a concern that all my work for the class will not be enough by the time I take it. We’ll see. It will be with a different instructor too but that’s Scott, so I do not mind one bit. My proposal is coming on nicely and at this point, 2 stories are completed with two more set to be completed shortly.

Brief Update.

That Boyish Smile is finished and all I need is images to play around with. Melissa, one of my fellow interns is off to Vegas tonight and is graciously going to the Excalibur hotel for me to get these images. Melissa you are FAB.

Darcy and Glass is completed thanks to the equally FAB Andy Bean.

Victuals has been started by the somewhat inimitable Jess Smiley. I love the sketches I’ve seen and am Flippin’ excited.

Puppies has been taken on by Andy Bean who originally did an oil-painted study on the concept of the story. It will be interesting to see what happens with this story now. There was talk of a touch and feel aspect to the story which I’m not sure of how we’ll do it and recreate it(if it comes to that) but I’m totally sold on.

What’ll I Do is the final story and the one that is the least developed…as in at all. I know it will combine elements of Japanese horror films, Irving Berlin, ASL and Film Noir but that’s as much as I have.

The Story that ties them altogether, “Grennian,” is being written as we speak.

Also, other creative ventures have been slowly creeping back. Lydia has really been on the fringe recently. Every time I see something that I don’t agree with but don’t have the backbone or the desire to make a deal about, Lydia goes off on one inside my head. After a couple of months drunk and amnesiac in South America, Lydia is back and has been working on her own projects. Some of the topics include, cocktails, Buses, not being understood at Café Rio, Earthquakes and that feeling you get when you know everyone in the room has slept with your boyfriend.

I don’t know where she gets it from sometimes, honestly.

So the New Era…6 weeks left. Really? Has it been that long already? January wasn’t that long ago…was it? Gosh. I’ve gotta get a job. What am I gonna do? How am I gonna provide for Amy and Riley? There is nothing on the horizon in sight and any searches I do on Monster come up with jobs unrelated to my happiness.

Lots of articles coming out in the magazine though, so look out for my name, and more posts here.

Just Some things I'm grateful for this season.

2009-12-14T10:42:00.000-08:00

   Gosh, I feel I haven't been here in so long and actually it has been a while. So much for my promise of a weekly post. Rah. So lots of things happened since that last post where I said I was going to a haunted house. We went to said haunted house and it was awesome. So awesome, I wanted to go again but money did not permit. I guess I'll have to savor the memory of Amy being chased from the building by full-on Leatherface actor who slashed the concrete with his chain saw and prodded Amy with it. Maybe next year I'll go audition to be an actor there.

   So I quit my job. Yeah, and I do remember that lesson my dad taught me about never quitting a job until you have another one lined up, but it was just getting stupid at work. To cut a long story short, I was verbally attacked and singled out by a boss for doing something that all three of my co-workers do also, but did they get a lashing. Not at all. To make this story even more bittersweet, I found out that ALL the front desk staff were abusing the internet rules I had been keeping and I hear they still haven't changed the rules or enforced them more.
The time was right for me to leave. We were having babysitter issues and it worked for me to watch Riley and Amy get more work with her better pay. That actually turned into a rant I wasn't actually going to make.
   Anyway Finals are here and I'm getting everything done, but thought I'd do a little list of the things I am thankful for.

1. Amy and Riley.

What would I do without them both? I constantly enjoy their company and love them more than anyone or thing else.

2. To counteract the Rant above. I am actually thankful for the Testing Centre. That job was a blessing and answered so many prayers. And plus the people there are great, if not indulgers of personal oddities and quirks but since when am I any different.

3. Glee. I love this show. It makes me smile every time I watch it. Heres a clip of the sectionals episode that blew me away.

4. The New Era.

I got an internship with LDS magazines. I'll be an editorial Intern and will be able to write, edit and organize things under the mentorship of the editors. Another blessing and it took almost three months to apply and get it. All the stress was worth it and it is the place that I need to be. It starts Jan. 4 and I am so excited for it. On top of it all it's paid.

5. The super Happy Fun Book.

This yearly art project returns with Jill McQuay as its victim...ahem, star. Last year was a sombre year. Due to the madness in my life it was never finished and Carrie was the subject. It hurts to no end that I never finished the book and that she will never receive it. Sorry Carrie.
I think i'm going to give Carries finished Super Happy Fun Book to Diane as a present.

6. The UVU Review and Lydia Colt.

It seems thee UVU Review was put in my path to keep me sane this semester. Everyone on the paper is wonderful. I feel such a friendship and kinship with so many people there. Thanks must also go out to them for letting me indulge in Lydia Colt. Every week I have spent hours laughing and chuckling to myself every time I think of another subject or situation for Lydia to talk about. Laughter is the best medicine and Lydia is its wacky God.

Anyway thats all for now. Laters all.

My Life according to Nerina Pallot

2009-10-19T10:21:00.000-07:00

Artist:

Nerina Pallot

Describe yourself:

Alien

How do you feel:

Real Late Starter

Describe where you currently live:

Halfway Home

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:

Idaho

Your favorite form of transportation:

Jump

Your best friend is:

Sophia

You and your best friends are:

Learning To Breathe

Favorite time of day:

Geek Love

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:

The Long Tall Grass Of Summer

What is life to you:

Daily Bread

Your relationship:

Patience or All good People

Your fear:

Heart Attack

What is the best advice you have to give:

Blood Is Blood

Thought for the Day:

When Did I Become Such a Bitch

How I would like to die:

My Last Tango

My soul's present condition:

Damascus

My motto:

I Don’t wanna Go Out.

Mah Mooses and UVU don't want to play nice together.

2009-10-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while since I did anything on here. I'm still feeling that flicker in my left eye that is driving me mental. Maybe I just have to come to terms that it's been seven years since I had my eyes tested and that perhaps I don't have 20/20 vision anymore. Rah. Or it could just mean that my constantly viewing a computor screen watching the test takers and idiots yawning, stretching and testing at work,copy-editing, editing and all the homework and reading I have to do for school are all just building up a small bubble of pressure that will pop sometimes soon. Add to this the stress of building a portfolio for a deadline that fell on today, and I was in need of a break by the third week of school.

Anyway We spent the last three days in Midway. Midway from Orem to Park City and just about the most perfect place (except for home with family) I could have been. Well Jill, Dustin and Ella came with us and we played games every night and finally played the Mr. and Mrs Game Jodi Bought us for Christmas. And it was Fun with a Capital. I felt relaxed for a bit, which was good as it prepared me for this week which is going to be hectic to say the least.

This week will include the following.

Nightmare Mansion. I've been waiting for this for ages. Can't wait to be freaked out. Lydia told me she's writing about a haunted house she took her dad to when she was 14 over in London. Sounds like it could be really funny.

A friend is making us dinner this week with some professional stuff he uses for work. It's kind of like a tuppaware thing but without the pressure to buy.

Copy editing the UVU Review will be hectic this week with two issues going out within a couple of days. Well Hectic. I gotta e-mail Kyle to see if he can come in extra time.

Journalism workshops that the UVU Review is paying for me to go to. This should be really interesting and I should get dinner and a continental breakfast out of it too. Yayyy. Hurrah for UVU Review. I really appreciate it.
Also, I think I want to carve our pumpkin this week sometime, but the timing is going to be difficult. This might happen on Saturday.

So I saw this thing on someone elses Blog and thought it would be interesting to figure it out. I actually did it more than a month ago and am only just getting round to putting it up. Check out the next post for my life according to Nerina Pallot.

From the LSAT

2009-09-28T14:24:00.000-07:00

This piece is being written in my notebook while proctoring and supervising the LSAT with the intention ofit being copied and transferred to Hoo Mah Moos. I don't know what it is about 20 future (possibly) Lawyers that sucks the creativity out of you. Anyway heres a few different things that I've had on my mind recently.

The last few weeks have kept me busy. Work, School, classes, reading for classes, copy editing, writing, writing for the paper, reading, reading scriptures, meetings to formulate our panel discussions, applying for an internship (which is more stressful for me than I ever think it will be, every time I do it.), Touchstones reading night, trying to be home for Amy and Riley, preparing lessons for church, and other things. It's been a lot to do and thats not even including all the busy work my brain gets up to, thinking about work, school, and my future.

I think I need a breather. I need to distance myself from un-essential computor work (ahem) and not take everything so seriously. This doesn't mean a disavowal of those things that should be taken seriously, but I think that this might calm down the almost constant twitching of my left eye.

Last night I saw the documentary "The Sonosopher, Alex Caldiero," made by a friend, Torben Bernhard. I was so inspired by the documentary, I want to be a sonosopher. I've taken a class from Alex and I enjoyed it thoroughly, but the class was so in-your-face and interesting inspiring, and compelling. Out of all the classes I've taken at UVU, (not including my upper division English classes) This was the one class I can't imagine not having taken, and is also the one I would take again given the chance. I think I aspire to be as blatantly and creatively honest as Alex Caldiero.

Title Piece

2009-09-09T18:09:00.000-07:00

I'm in the process of trying to personalize this blog a bit more by adding artwork and other elements. I've been reading up on blogs and what makes them successful and gets hits even, but this is all a work in progress.

So I'll be updating the image as I tweak it and transform it into its final state. The one currently in the title space is the skeleton of the piece with Ink pen added over the top.

Just to give people out there a heads up to what the title actually means; it's just me saying the words "Who is my muse?" in a stupid voice. And to answer that question, on the whole I prescribe to the three muses Melpomene, Euterpe and Thalia the muses of Tragedy, lyric+song, and Comedy Respectively, but other things become muses for me at different points, states, and stages of my life.

The cult of Colt not working as a comedy?

2009-09-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

So severeal things have been on my mind recently.
1. The Cult of Lydia Colt was not working as a comedy. I've tried to rework it as a black comedy and this seems to be faring a bit better. In its current form, i'll be able to talk about Greek mythology and the philosophies of Death and Madness within the Phaedo/Phaedrus concept and through this was born my use of newly created Villains to Lydia's Anti-hero. The two villains in question are the twin Gods Hy-hy and Thana and will be causing most of the death and destruction through out the novella. These two are the children of the gods of night and Dark, and are themselves the god and godess of Death and Sleep.

Hy-hy is the God of sleep. She takes the form of a young blonde haired Harajuku girl and will be crazy through lack of sleep. This she does vicariously through her followers or cult members who are waning due to issues that will be revealed later. Thana is her brother and is the god of death. Thana also lives vicariously through his own cult members and followers who are always dissapearing as..they die. His power is always fleeting as his cult is always shrinking.

They both believe that Lydia's cult is taking power away from their own, so they decide to kill her. Lydia takes flight as she is not powerful enough to take on two Gods at a time. She decides that the more cult members she can gain, the more powerful she will become. She seeks out her long lost son whom she fathered with a human woman, just like her own father Zeus did with her mother. Lydia is of course the walking latterday representation of Dyonisus. Craziness and death ensue. I've yet to come up with the finale but it's coming.

2. The UVU Review. I'm really enjoying working on the newspaer. I've a lot to learn about copy editing which is my job there but I think I'm getting better. I need to be able to work better with the other copy editors. While one of them is great and helps me figure things out a lot I feel the other is no help at all in getting things done in time for deadlines. This stresses me out because this automatically means I have to be even more vigilant abot mistakes getting through as I've had to go and redo the stories that that individual has already copy-edited. MAH MAHHHH! Anyway I love the people on the paper, and the E-I-C has been really helpful in letting me know exactly what I need to do and the ways in which she wants things done, which may sound annoying but as the middle man said, Specificity is the soul of all good communication.
Also as an aside, the articles that I have been writing for the review as Lydia Colt, have caused me no end of laughter. I'm in stitches with every themed issue of The V. Check her out at www.uvureview.com

3. Virgin Cocktail. This story was inspired by the 35 Albino slayings this year in Tanzania and Certain parts of Africa. All these bodyparts are being used for Black magic and voodoo as goodluck charms and other witch carft. I was thinking about how I could bring that to a fresher more local location and write about a voodoo Priestess who lives just down the road and how she would do business in a small bubbled LDS culture location. The results are bloodier, sicker and more twisted than I've been able to dream up in a long time. My main goal is for unsettling, the other goal is for a cool circular type of story that has a nice set of twists and an ending that goes against the grain and ends badly for the innocent. All this on top of The review, Film theory class in which I still have to watch the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and the slight annoyance of editing class and i'm kept nicely busy.

Bio Gone and Done It.

2009-08-06T14:15:00.000-07:00

Done what? you may Ask. There has been a couple of time in the past where I got really angry over some things. People, friends, school, Work, 5am shoppers at sainsburies, Bikes(don't ask) and other random things. To help me vent in a non confrontational way and thereby biting the heads of the people I love and like I had "The anger mix." This mix was until just this last week forgotten about. I guess I just haven't been mind bracingly angry in a long time....UNTIL NOW.

Biology 1010 done it. Up to this point I have taken three exams, that I studied hard for and thought I understood everything well enough to pass said exams. Well I have been increasingly proved wrong. Exam 1: 74%. Exam 2: 70%. Exam 3: 64%.

WHAT THE HELL? This has brought on bouts of depression and severe anger that I haven't felt in a while. Two things have made me feel better.
1) The Phonogram comic series. Grief, this is just musically, artistically and literary genius. You should check it out, Seth Bingo and Silent Girl are genius. JUST GENIUS.
2) I remembered the anger mix, I tweaked it and reformed it on my iTunes and here is the playlist I played for several hours yesterday.

1. Resident Evil Main Title Theme: Marilyn Manson
2. Playing Your Song: Hole
3. Hit The Floor: Linkin Park
4. Operation Blade [7' Radio Edit]: Public Domain
5. Anything But This: Static-X
6. Going Under: Evanescence
7. Chop Suey!: System Of A Down
8. Don't Stay: Linkin Park
9. Call Me When You're Sober: Evanescence
10. Session: Linkin Park
11. Breed:Snake River Conspiracy
12. The view from the Afternoon: Arctic Monkeys
13. Real A Lie: Auf Der Maur
14. Whisper: Evanescence
15. Violet: Hole
16. It's Not Over Yet: The Klaxons

Some of it's pure rage in a song, some of it weird some of it just bitter enough to let me vent, some of it just what I needed to hear, but all of it feeling right at home (if that doesn't sound too weird) in my head. Anger Mix, oh how I missed you. There, I feel better now.

My Heroes

2009-08-02T16:25:00.000-07:00

So It's roughly a month away from Pilots season for T.V. Quite exciting and me being the T.V junky I am, I am waiting for the new shows and the season premieres of old favourites.

At this time, Leverage and Burn Notice have both been on the screens in their summer spots, but it really is the Fall/Spring shows that I am excited for. Heroes and Lie To Me, being two of my returning favourites. Lie to me comes back to us on a monday this season and is hands down one of the most intelligent, fantastic entertaining pieces of art in a long time. And then theres Heroes.

Heroes is my popcorn superpowered Lover who enticed me with just what I wanted and said, it's okay your wife can watch too. Ever since seeing the pilot a couple of weeks before it was shown on television I was enraptured. This was the show for me. Several superpowered characters integrated in to real life situations with a super powered serial killed thrown in for good measure. It's like they spied on my dreams and said, "okay, Serialised Television show catered just for Loz Cook coming through." Of course I lapped it all up. And so, it seemed, did everyone else. Heroes became the geeky media darling loved by fans and critics alike. Then the writers strike happened (And thank the heavens this didn't extend to comics or... well, bad things might have happened). Heroes gave us a great season 2 that was cut short because of the strike. Now I loved Season 2, despite the ultra annoying Maya, who should have died instead of her brother, but still did not ruin my enjoyment of the show. The New Orleans crowd had me hooked. Season three also gave me what I wanted. More interaction and battle between the super powered characters. The Villains and other characters hooked me and kept me fascinated in almost the same way the X-Men had(and still do) to this day. But there was a problem. The fanboys.

Okay I confess, I'm a comics geek (note I said Geek, NOT NERD, NOT FANBOY, Geek. There is a difference). This isn't a surprise, but I love my comics, and I can be quite obsessed sometimes. It's not even the collectors bug. It's not that I have to have so many issues and collectors items, because I don't. But I do have a substantial collection, most of which reside In about 15 packing boxes in the attic at home. "Oh that I had them here in the USA." Anyway what I'm saying is, Im a plot and story whore. I need my fix of characterisation, plot, story, suspense, intrigue and cliffhangers. Oh the cliffhangers. That feeling after reading the last page of a comic book and painfully, but also excitedly knowing that you have to wait for another month until you find out WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? It's all part of the fun and entertainment.

Anyway I digress, Comics are alot like T.V in this respect, and the reason I bring up Heroes and comics together is that on an message board or fan site, you will always get fanboy perspectives and holier than thou opinions. Heroes took a nose dive in popularity. It's almost as though it's cool and intelligent to say that this show is just not as good as it was in the first season and that it's headed for cancellation. Everyone seems like they want a shred of poor torn old heroes. I have to disagree. I've enjoyed Heroes as much this last season as I did the 2nd and the 1st. As I explained, Im a story, plot whore. So what is behind all this discomfort? Let me give you my opinion, like so many other fans.

The thing with T.V shows, and Comics for that matter, is, The longer a show is produced, the more, over zealous fans think they know and should decide what makes it good and what will keep it good. We all think we're owed the exact television we're subjected to and we all think that we have a right to make those desci. Let me explain a bit more.

I think that with a medium we have no control over, you have to just wait for it and see what comes. If you don't like it, you can choose not to subject yourself to it again or wait for the next juicy morsel to entertain you. It's that simple. But to continue to bitch about about it not giving you what YOU want, is just a bit silly. What's stupider still, is to continue to watch it and still complain.

Well just to end this little portion of writing, heres Garth Ennis on comics publishing.

"What we're talking about here, I think, is conventional wisdom, which by its very nature is soundbite-driven and often highly reflexive. I used to handle the letter column during Preacher's monthly run, and I saw a pattern of criticism develop there in what I soon realized was a very predictable way - year two's not as good as year one, year two was wonderful but year three's lost it, this is just a lot of violence and swearing, all he's trying to do is get noticed - repeated ad infinitum. It's one of the reasons I don't bother with message boards and reviews and things, which I believe are largely a distraction.

What I look at instead are the sales figures, which answer the most important question of all: Can I keep writing the story I want to write?"

Here here Garth.

Maybe...why I'm still afraid of the dark.

2009-07-28T19:56:00.000-07:00

Just saw the posters for the new nightmare retelling. I'm just so torn as to how I should I should think and feel about this. A part of me is dieing to see what they produce and the other part of me is just wanting them to leave the franchise alone as it doesn't need a retelling or remake.

Freddy was like my Anti hero growing up. The characters, victims, effects, make-up, dream sequences, philosophy, imagination, horror, spirit and humour and the fear of dark that I haven't quite gotten over, were all reasons that kept me obsessed. It is this last comment that has caused a quiver of excitement when I saw these posters on Yahoo.

Anyone else, apalled, excited or interested in this movie?

I Rant on 5 things

2009-07-22T09:57:00.001-07:00

1. “Biology.” Damnit, Biology is driving me crazy. I’m not a genius, but then I’m not stupid either and the hours spent studying and amount of stuff I think I understand, don’t correlate to my grades so far on the exams. What is going on? I go in with all the confidence in the world and then search that bloody score board only to find, 74% and 70% respectively. With three weeks left on this course and 3 tests left. I am going into stress mode. Can you believe this is the only class I’m taking this summer and it has been THE BANE.

2. “Self–caused responsibility-drains on my time.” Yeah I should fulfill these, but there are so many other things that drag on my time needs that it really is hard to get everything in. There really is no rest for the wicked. As much as I hate this cliché, it seems to be proving true on both counts.

3. “Drivers here.” I know, I know it seems to be a popular complaint, but I’m going to get really specific. It’s those stupid numptys driving along with one hand and phone attached to the side of their heads. These inconsiderate spastics have no manners and are going to cause accidents, if they haven’t already. Three of my work colleagues (there’s four of us in the office), within three months all wrote off their cars because of inconsiderate spastics on their phones. This week I’m on University parkway and some idiot pulls out in front of me causing me to break hard. I swerved a bit just missing him and he’s on the phone. This is not the first time this has happened and won’t be the last, but I would appreciate not arriving at work fuming with bad language in my head. It really puts a dampener on my morning and has done on a couple of different mornings in the last week. Hence Rant.

4. Actually as an aside to the phone thing, that following afternoon on the way home, some idiot in a white car pulls out without looking and I really slam on the horn being sick of these types of people. It’s then I notice the sign on the side of his door pointing out he is a sheriff. He slows right down to about 20 mph and I think he is going to stop for me and give me a talking to, but instead the twat continues at 20 for the rest of 1200 west. I hate when people go BELOW the speed limit.

5. Sad I Know, but Chloe and Cal became victims to Wakefield in Harpers Island. I was really hoping they would survive. but alas it was not to be. It was a very emotional, powerful scene which made me excuse the horror stupidity that plagued the characters up until that point in the episode. I’m so obsessed with this show, I even bought the music to Cal and Chloe’s demise. It’s by Civil Twilight and it’s called Letters from the sky. I love it.

Capstone Plans

2009-07-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

Alterran Tales

This, hopefully will be my capstone project come Fall Semester. It will be a five story illustrated anthology graphic novel. Each story will have a different writing style, art style and feeling associated with it. The point of the anthology will be to use English creative writing to communicate different forms of the campfire ghost stories we all used to tell when young. As of right now I have four different artists providing a different style to each of my stories. This may change.

The basic premise for the Anthology is a small family living in Dallow County, Alterra. Alterra is a world of creatures monsters and nasties I created for my book Becoming Rictus. The family in question is the Diener Family. They are Grenns, a lower sub species of demons with a secret. The father of the family is human, which is a huge no-no in Alterra. The Dieners are proud parents to children Loretta and Luke. It is the day after Halloween where the whole of Alterra relaxes and rests after the previous days activities and celebrations. They do this by sleeping, meeting in clans, tribes and families and they tell stories to each other.

This year Luke has invited a friend over for the annual story telling. That evening each member of the family and Matty, Lukes friend, take turns telling a horror story. There is always competition to see who's story is the best. The anthology starts with this premise that links each of the story and will be illustrated by me.

1. Darcy and Glass The mother, Gosha, tells this story of wayward children who misbehave and what becomes of them. This is the only story that is semi-finished and is made up of some really cool print work.

2. That boyish Smile Matty tells this mystery "is it a vampire story or isn't it" style tale. This Story was accepted into the Spring09 Touchstones at UVU. It's one of my favourites and is in first-person prose style.

3. Victuals This is Lukes tale of cub scouts who turn out to be were-dinosaurs. It's a throwback to some of the old english stories I used to read in childrens book style.

4. What'll I do This is Loretta's story and is supposed to be relayed directly into the other characters minds telepathically. This is going to be one of the more avant guard style stories that runs through some music lyrics and black and white photographic images that will be doctored and graffittied.

The last story is 5. Puppies This is Roys Dieners story in picture book style. This may very well change according to the artists style but is about a lost little girl who might not be as lost as she seems and the morrally questionable stranger that asks if she needs help.

More infor to come later.

Buffy Does Edward

2009-07-06T08:59:00.000-07:00

This is great. Go Buffy.

If I had ever been remotely interested in Seeing twilight, these tiny clippets are enough to remind me NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Lydia Colt on Fireworks, bonfires and Guys.

2009-06-25T18:16:00.001-07:00

Allo all you patriots out there, Ooh I love a good patriot. A bit of Mel or Heath (god rest) always goes down the right way. Anyway, It’s Aunty Lyds here, doin’ the rounds as it were. And I’ve been getting the biz on this 4th of July you Americans all seem gung-ho over. I’ve been asking lots of people around campus to give me the low down and so far we’ve got fireworks, sparklers, fairground rides, outdoorsy stuff and grilling. This sounds like you all copied one of our British holidays, Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes Night.
So whass Bonfire Night all about I hear you mutter? Keep yer knickers on, Aunty Lyds was just getting to that. Here’s the biz. Back in 1605, a small group of extremists, well to be honest they were terrorists opposing the kings harsh treatment of the Catholics. Anyway, these blokes tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament and in turn bump off the king, possibly the Prince of Wales and a gaggle of parliament members, bless, now that’s independence. So they get together and fill the cellars below the Houses of Parliament with gunpowder, but before they get anywhere someone gets cold feet and tips off ‘is Majesty. So on November 5th Mr. King an’ all ‘is mates go off to the cellars and try catchin’ em in the act. The only geezer they find is Guy Fawkes and about 37 barrels of gunpowder. If I were Guy, I’d be well gutted, and that leads me to the next bit. It’s hung (titter), drawn an’ quartered time for Guy Fawkes and everyone (well most everyone, the Catholics weren’t too happy) gives a cheer and sets bonfires everywhere to celebrate a near miss. Phew.
Well nowadays, to celebrate that great day of independence from Catholics and terrorism, every 5th of November us Brits ‘ave our fill of fireworks, sparklers, fairground rides, outdoorsy stuff and grilling. But not the grilling of hot dogs an’ burgers, mind you I love a big sausage more than the next, but we chuck an effigy of old Guy Fawkes on the bonfire. That happens all around Britain. Even the kids join in by stuffing old clothes with newspaper and making scarecrow-esque dolls which they cart around in wheelbarrows begging money for the ‘Guy’ their gonna burn later in the day (tear). Ooh I think I’m havin’ a patriotic moment.
The only reason I bring all this up is that when I asked people about 4th July, no one said anything about the day us Brits got our independence from you lot. Shame. Laters all, and come Independence Day, have a sausage for me. Lav ya.

Just saw this and was reminded of a class discussion last semester.

2009-05-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

Good on Green day. Not that they need wallmart to be successful.

Green Day lashes out at Wal-Mart policy
AP, May 21, 2009 12:00 pm PDT

Green Day has the most popular CD in the country, but you won't be able to find it at your local Wal-Mart.The band says the giant superstore chain refused to stock its latest CD, "21st Century Breakdown," because Wal-Mart wanted the album edited for language and content, and they refused.
"Wal-Mart's become the biggest retail outlet in the country, but they won't carry our record because they wanted us to censor it," frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said in a recent interview.
While Wal-Mart sells CDs from acts known for raunchy content, including Eminem's latest, they offer customers the "clean" version of those CDs, which are edited for content that may be objectionable. But in Armstrong's view, "There's nothing dirty about our record."

"They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there," he said. "We just said no. We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something.""21st Century Breakdown" contains curses and some references considered adult.
Wal-Mart said that it's the company's long-standing policy not to stock any CD with a parental advisory sticker.
"As with all music, it is up to the artist or label to decide if they want to market different variations of an album to sell, including a version that would remove a PA rating," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien said. "The label and artist in this case have decided not to do so, so we unfortunately can not offer the CD."
But bassist Mike Dirnt said: "As the biggest record store in the America, they should probably have an obligation to sell people the correct art."
Not being sold at Wal-Mart didn't stop the band — which kicks off a U.S. tour summer tour in Seattle on July 3 — from landing at the top of the album charts this week. "21st Century Breakdown" sold about 215,000 copies since it's debut on Friday.
The album is the follow-up to their multiplatinum, Grammy-winning CD "American Idiot," and like that album, deals with weighty topics. While "American Idiot" spoke to the frustration over the presidency of George W. Bush and the Iraq War, this CD speaks to the loss of innocence and confusion in today's society.
While Armstrong, Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool are still top-sellers without Wal-Mart, Armstrong said the store's policy is disappointing, considering it has become the dominant seller of CDs with the decline of traditional music stores.
"If you think about bands that are struggling or smaller than Green Day ... to think that to get your record out in places like that, but they won't carry it because of the content and you have to censor yourself," he said. "I mean, what does that say to a young kid who's trying to speak his mind making a record for the first time? It's like a game that you have to play. You have to refuse to play it."

I have nothing against red heads...

2009-04-10T16:56:00.000-07:00

Okay I really have nothing against red heads, so when i saw all this information online about the plights that some of them go through and the humour directed at them and the humour created by red heads I had to include more on my Blog here what I found.

Here is the full clip including her visit to the refuge.

and below is a clip of Rebecca Mader who was recently in Lost and Justice.

So just a couple of interesting ways people have adressed Red hair in the media.

2009-04-03T20:32:00.000-07:00

I saw this and thought it was good. Highlighting a problem by showing it in action. The advert said that 2 women die from domestic violence every week but we never really hear about.
In class a few weeks ago we watched a documentarie called Beyond beats and rhyms and has a similar disturbing message. One of the statistics said that more than 700,000 women are sexually assaulted each year in the U.S one woman every 45 seconds. Scary stuff
Then in class today someone showed the video showcasing women seen as objects in a sports wear advertisement. I think this video shows a stark contrast.

I Like Steak

2009-03-13T14:59:00.001-07:00

found this on Red Blog of all places but i find myself totally agreeing with it. Mentioned it in class and thought i would post it here for your pleasure. Well the link anyway.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2299086&id=512464438&ref=nf#/note.php?note_id=60567067018

I cut this a bit short and you can check out the whole article on my facebook note but heres the last paragraph.

But there are new-school horror films that are simply well-made (like The Strangers) or imperfect but trying something new (like The Ruins) or that turn familiar genres on their heads (there's a film that may, someday, be released called All the Boys Love Mandy Lane I saw at a midnight screening in Toronto two years ago; it's the best re-invention of the slasher flick since scream, and I really wish whoever owns it would get it released already ....) And much as foreign directors who loved the American gangster films of the '40s turned that tired genre back around in the '50s and '60s (and then America's new directors learned from those films) there are some amazing foreign horror films, or foreign directors, in the field -- movies like Micahel Haneke's Funny Games, or Inside, a French film that may have scared me more than anything I've seen in the past five years. So no more junk food horror for me -- weak remakes and sloppy slasher films, flabby star vehicles or retread concepts. Jason Voorhees may have taken a lot of lives on-screen tonight, but he also reminded me of what matters in mine: when it comes to horror -- and steak -- only the best is good enough.

"As i mentioned in class, I'm a total TV junkie and totally perceptible to media. I want good steak I want a medium rare steak, i want it medium well done but with a hint of the blood from some animals shank, ribs or ass, i wanna taste the blood i wanna feel man enough to eat it all, all 23 lbs, i want it like my horror Definitely want GOOD horror I want it well done with just enough blood from some victims shank ribs or ass, I want it all.I want to read it as well, i want all the books in the world in my bedroom especially Clive barker , i want him to write me a book and i wanna go through it afterward and cross out all the bits i like and put my name on em, i want to have Stephen kings intellectual property in a huge box on my bedside table with a big ole Loz cook Copyright stamped on the side that I'll sleep on and wake up with the ink on my forehead, I think you hear me knocking and I'm comin in, in fact I'm already in , I'm in your closet with a machete, your babysitters head and a notebook full of cliches."

This was inspired by Denis Leary's media spots on Mtv, back when that was all i watched., when There was Sarah Cox and Ray Cokes (English Mtv was very different than USA Mtv) and more than just the rash of horrible reality scabs.

For your viewing pleasure here is Denis.

New face of...

2009-03-09T10:56:00.000-07:00

I know this is late but We had family tradgedies and stuff to take care of over the weekend. One of the things i have been thinking about a lot from class was race and then the power of big corporations.

Last week in the show "Lie To Me," (sorry to bring up another TV show example) a couple of the characters were talking about a murder suspect in a multi-racial work environment. One of them mentioned the new face of Racism. He said that Overt prejudice had been replaced by unconcious discrimination. Another comments that when Unconcious Racism builds up it can become lethal.

This got me thinking about the video we saw in class and how i soooo want a return of those seemingly all powerful and courageous Muckrakers Like Ida Tarbell and her peers.
I also got thinking about what the new face of publicity and advertising was. Since advertising has only been around since there has been products to sell, where is the line drawn. Does ANYONE have the right to sell and advertise ANYTHING no matter what dangers may be present.

It reminded me of the recalls of certain toys, products and foods, that were a danger to human beings. I guess the big powerful corporations are above that. Some of them should be taken down a peg. How? I don't know.

Buddy X

2009-02-25T08:06:00.000-08:00

With all the Black looks and Beyond beats and Rhymes and Feminism stuff we've been doing recently i was reminded of One of my favourite artists back in the 90's. When it came out in 1993 I was graduating from secondry school and it was such a big hit. It was by Neneh Cherry Who also did a version of it with Notorious B.I.G but i prefer the original. Anyway here it is. I recently found out it was (Supposedly)written about Lenny Kravitz who was cheating on Nenehs best friend Lisa Bonnet.

Buddy X was the name Kravitz would check into hotels while he was whoring himself off to groupies. Neneh was his opening act at the time and decided to take him down a peg or two.

I think it's a really interesting contrast to the hip hop videos that started popping up around that time. Even B.I.G's rap additions are full of the over masculinised material shown in the beyong beats and Rhymes video. It's funny that Nenehs lyrics should be merged with that.

Sorry the Sound is out of synch.

Unlearning racism

2009-02-19T19:29:00.000-08:00

The reading from this week really got me re-thinking about race and my experiences with race and racism. All the experiences I have had remind me constantly that we all have to unlearn our privileges, escpecially in regards to race and people different to ourselves.
There were about 3 points that really got me thinking.
1. We all suffer from the effects of white supremacy. I'd never thought about this before. We all do it. We all like to put others in their place if it makes us feel better. I've done it too many times. As I mentioned in a previous post, My best friend growing up was a black boy named Dane'. I Always thought i was better than other white people who were so racist to him. Harsh lesson one. I had a black friend who I admired and wished i was just like him, skin colour and all, but i sometimes told and laughed at Ethiopian Jokes. (Yes they exist). What did they ever do to me?
The fact is, "many folks benefit greatly from dominating others and are not suffering a wound similar to the condition of the exploited and oppressed." I may not have benefitted from dominating others, but by perpetuating race jokes, I was adding to exploitation.

2. Everyone's racist aren't they. I rememeber my mum being so upset and afraid to go to work as there was a local black man who she used to serve at the post office she worked at, as he would shout at her and tell her that she was racist and never wanted to serve him. He told her that if she wasn't careful, he would beat her, and would come back to the post office and set her on fire.My Mum is the least racist person i know. Sh literally doesn't have it in her. Even that generational thing some people have against blacks. She doesn't have it. This man was using race against her and was in himself being racist to her. He got a lot of complaints but my mum was his target.
I always believed that everyone, of all races, could be racist. Of course as i read this chapter, Hooks turned that belief around for me.I have never even thought about the difference between Prejudicial feelings and Institutionalised White supremacist domination.It was interesting to learn what hooks believes about the difference being that Black-folks feelings about white people "are in no way linked to a system of domination that affords them any power to coercively control the lives and well-being of white folks." I think I understand this now.

3.The point about it being 'cool' for white people to hang out with black people. I learned quite a while ago (with some pretty major experiences that maybe i might have enough courage to write about at a later time)that Unlearning racism is Sooo important. I feel so strongly about this because i have made some mistakes in my own life, taking it for granted having friends of other colours and even dating people of other colours. Hooks says that most white people don't feel that this "pleasure should be linked to unlearning racism." I never really thought about that either, but I do know that i have since, embraced blackness as having been an important part of my life.

Man Schnibs

2009-02-13T08:34:00.000-08:00

I thought this weeks lesson on Genderads was really interesting. I can totally see myself falling into the trap of categorisation. Growing up in school I was always labelled as different,(as i mentioned in another post) but i have really seen the us VS them attitude in media and TV. I have watched too much TV.

Before i went to secondry school i was small thin and i even played Rugby as the hooker as i was so small. It was around this time, (age 13) that started eating meat, drinking soda and lots of sweets. I wasn't fat but i was chunky and i stayed chunky for a few years.
It was pointed out to me that fat was wrong and that i should try harder to lose it.I was in need of repair. Despite there being people much larger than me at school, and the majority of the students a similar size to myself, i sure i can't have been the only one to develop a view that i was somehow abnormal, that my body was not like the others.

Of course at school there are always the over achievers and (as there are in life, TV, media and society) those specimens of the human body. These were there for us to see what was wrong with our own bodys. I wasn't athletic and got bored with Football and Rugby very quickly when i was too big to play hooker. Nowadays it's the P90X advertising that always catches my attention and makes me believe for a moment that if i subscribed to it and actually took the effort i too could have a body like some of the men in the after photos.
The key word here is effort. If i make the effort maybe i won't have a wobbly gut or man schnibs. Punishment. I need to punish myself. I need to eat less, i need to work out, i need to push myself to the limits, sweat till i bleed. As if.

But there are ways to fix ourselves and success stories.
Heres my success story.

A few years ago, i was really unhappy with my weight, i felt sluggish and bored and just not happy with myself. Then i had my monthly check-up at the dentist. He said to me, "How many sweets to you eat?" I said that i am a fan of sweets. He said, "Well if you don't want 4 cavities next time you come to me, you'd better take it easy on the sweets consumption." This scared me silly and i swore off sweets and chocolate in fear of cavities. The next day some Arse, stole my bike. I walked everywhere and was not eating sweets. For 3whole months I abstained from sugar and soda and was marching all over the city.I Lost 50 pounds. You can do it too.

As an aside to that story, when i returned to the dentist I had 3 preventative fillings and decided that the no sweets thing was a bit harsh and i had cavities anyway. Nowadays, my wobbly gut and man schnibs are back, and i'm rethinking the soda and sweets deal.

Can't write worth a darn.

2009-02-06T13:49:00.000-08:00

I saw this article this week and thought it was really interesting about different authors and their representations of women and horror. I thinking about maybe writing some kind of paper on women in horror and different views of them and this article really caught my attention. One author King, has been writing female characters for years and Meyer just a more recent author. Both successful for different reasons i think, and King has hit it right on the head.

Stephen King's opinion may drive a stake through the heart of "Twilight" author, Stephenie Meyer.
In an interview with USA Weekend, the bestselling author compared Meyer with J.K. Rowling , the author of the Harry Potter series.
According to Stephen, "Both Rowling and Meyer, they're speaking directly to young people... The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn. She's not very good."
Meeooww!
While Stephen may not be a fan of Stephenie's writing, he understands the appeal of the series.
"People are attracted by the stories, by the pace and in the case of Stephenie Meyer, it's very clear that she's writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It's exciting and it's thrilling and it's not particularly threatening because it's not overtly sexual."
He further explains, "A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that's a shorthand for all the feelings that they're not ready to deal with yet."

It makes me wonder recently with this rash of fandom that Meyers is enjoying, what men really think about Meyers writing and what Women really think of Kings writing.If you compare Kings Vampire novels and short stories and Meyers Twilight series, i'm intrigued by the success of both. King Started writing in the 60's with short stories and then Salems lot was published around 1975 when all this Political and social change was going on.

The biggest thought in my head was what if King had written Salems Lot after the millenium and what if meyers (I know she is considerably younger) had written Twilight in the 70's. What differences would there be. Would either of them be affected differenlty and in turn change their books by the times and climates they lived in.
Just something that was going through my head this week.

Guise will be Guise, Boyz will be boyz?

2009-01-30T10:44:00.000-08:00

When I was young I had this T-shirt. It was small, with orange sleeves in the baseball style with a white front and back. It had a cartoon on the front with this cool looking girl in a baseball outfit. She had freckles and orange pigtails. She was cool because she was playing this sport that I had never even seen before and seemed to be playing it well enough to be allowed on some team. I loved the shirt and there seemed to be two of them floating around our household. I would always take them and wear them. There was a sentence under the baseball girl and it said “anything boys can do, girls can do better.” I bet Freud might have had a field day with my family.

I was reminded of two occasions growing up in this weird female dominated house. In our neighborhood we had a hierarchy. When my sister Melissa was old enough to be let out to play with me she joined my group of friends. Because of her tomboy appearance and willingness to do whatever we were doing she was welcomed.

One time we all got in a fight with another group of kids who lived on the other side of the estate and I remember coming home from it crying with a bleeding nose and I didn’t hear the end of it for a while. My friends and Melissa mocked me for crying and I knew without a doubt that boys did not cry, ever.

A few weeks later a boy Melissa’s age bit my youngest sister B on the cheek. After deliberating together with the gang, we decided to get revenge. We were going to lure this boy to the park and then it was decided that because Melissa was a girl she would be the one to beat him up. We managed to get him to the park alone and Melissa accused him and the fight started. I felt as though it should have been me fighting for my younger sister and protecting their honor. It had been exciting but scary at the same time. Instead, I watched one of the most brutal fistfights of my young life. Melissa fought and punched and kicked, the other kid fought back like a cornered dog. Melissa was just harder. Bless. Melissa cryed through the fight, and my friends just told her "let it out, tears give you power."

There are just so many contradictions in genter stereotypes, even the ones we listed today. I felt that i wanted to go through them and list why they couldn't be trusted as a solid example of Manhood and what actually made them different, and why it sometimes is different for women to be in those same roles. My own life is a bundle of contradictions of what it is to be male and what that means in regards to feminism.So much so that i think I was programmed while young (whether i wanted to be or not, or even if i knew it or not) to have this active mind that questioned my role and my role pertaining to the women in my life.

I think that Douglas does a great job of analysing these times where there were all these changes in femininity and social stereotypes and roles. I can see a lot of the things she is discussing in the readings and am inspired by her wit and view of the times that she has lived through. Even today a lot of what she says still holds, there are so many examples in the media today that mirror the ones in the book.
Anyway I will post more on that, i think i've self indulged too much in this post already.

Just found this.

2009-01-23T07:48:00.000-08:00

http://whedonesque.com/comments/13271
I found this and it seems very appropriate to what we were talking about in class. It's shocking and horrific and it's the first time i had heard about this tradgedy, but I think Joss makes a great point.

Female V.S Female

2009-01-22T08:44:00.000-08:00

I thought this chapter was really interesting about the women fighting against themselves for supremacy. The line where douglas says, "These scenes tell us right away she's a no-good little bitch," was hilarious. I grew up with four sisters, all totally different from one another and you can imagine the conflicts that went on in our house with these four girls with extremely different, personalities and conflict styles. I find that there was this truth to what Douglas says, there is this conflict that is aroused in the kind of media showing these archetypes of the female character.

One of my favourite writers is Joss Whedon, who most of you might recognise as the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is one of my favourite shows, but then I am a huge fan of anything that Joss Whedon Writes. As a quick Tangent, I think that Buffy as a TV show did so much to turn stereotypes on their heads, especially with its portrayal of women. There are so many different views of female characters and they are not your everyday typical stereotypes of what women do and are capable of, and even their reasoning behind their actions in certain situations.

Anyway, Another passion of mine is comics and Joss Whedon wrote two years worth of Astonishing X-Men comics. This run of the popular Marvel characters was fantastic and at the core of the book there were these two female characters. We have Kitty Pryde, a young Innocent mild mannered Jewish girl (Who, coincidentally, Joss Whedon modelled his Buffy character on) and Emma Frost, the ultra rich socialite super bitch. Both of these characters fall into Douglas' Disney example. Kitty is the Disney Princess. The One we are supposed to be rooting for who is brought into be the teams public relations gimmick as she is the pretty girl who can get on with anyone and who can deal with the public as she looks "Normal."

Emma is the "older, vindictive, murderous Stepmother or Queen wearing too much eyeliner and eyeshadow." This is even more amusing as Emma does indid refer to herself sometimes as Auntie Emma and has the Mutant codename of "White Queen." She is often portrayed wearing blueeyeshadow and lipstick, and in the past all Emma has been concerned with is power and possibly having been corrupted by the power she held.
I could go on for ages about this, but needless to say there are these archetypes that Douglas points out that even now are being used. My comfort in Joss Whedons use of these characters is that things are never black and white despite the apparent catfights between Kitty and Emma. Things get complicated and the characters were made multi-faceted. We sometimes are annoyed at Kitty and sometimes sympathetic to Emma.

I hope this wasn't Ridiculously long.

MLK Wednesday

2009-01-16T21:07:00.001-08:00

I really thought that the presentations were really good. The middle speaker(yeah embarrassing i forgot toget his name) was so impressive. During his section, i jotted down some interesting points that illustrate ways and means that media can have effect on us and also how we can be savvy users of the media in regards to communication.
1. Know who your Audience is.
2. Refuse to move.
3. USe powerful visuals.
4. Use diverse media/multpile points of view.
5. Utilize Humor, Drama and Theatrics.
6. Give a visceral experience.
and lastly...
7. Convince with reason, motivate with Emotion.

I found the last speaker had the answer to our stereotypes discussion when he said judge on content of character not color of skin. This can be applied to all stereotypes and lends itself also to the don't judge a book by it's cover. We all do it. We all judge, I still find myself doing it every day. I'll see someone wearing something that i find odd or someone who looks different to what i think is the norm and i will make a judgement on them as a person. This is not always negative, but i'm sure people have the same view of me sometimes.

After the words, "Race is not the point," were said, i found myself wondering What is the point?
I think it's trying not to make judgements on others before you know them. It's trying not to make assumptions on character just by looks.

It sounds cliche but growing up, my best friend was a black boy named Dane'. I wanted his skin color so bad. We would go to Spain every year on holiday and i knew that my skin would geg darker from prolonged exsposure to the sun, but every year i returned with darker skin but white, sun bleached hair. It was being Dane's friend that alerted me to peoples harsh judgement of others.

Growing up in quite a diverse area, my best friends were anglo-african, or Indian. I found that i was bullied sometimes for being friends with them. I was labelled as being different for hanging out with different people. People would look for things that must be wrong with me. Being white, blonde and blue eyed and having 4 sisters, i was given the gay label. He must be gay, he dresses funny and has dyed hair, I found that the Gay label was used as a slur on my character and so i always kind of resented the label. It wasn't till after secondry school that it began to matter less who you were in regards to everyone else but who you were as an individual.
It's funny that even now the word "Gay" can and is used for anything that is viewed as bad and different.
There is a comic called runaways, and there is a really interesting line of dialogue. One character explains that the team don't have superhero costumes as they are gay. Another character berates him saying that if he continues to misuse that word he would be in trouble.

I just thought it would be cool to have a t-shirt that read, "Judge on content of character, not on color of skin.

greatest job in the world requires global communication

2009-01-13T08:01:00.000-08:00

I saw this article this morning and found it really interesting.

An Australian state is offering internationally what it calls "the best job in the world" -- earning a top salary for lazing around a beautiful tropical island for six months.

The job pays 150,000 Australian dollars (105,000 US dollars) and includes free airfares from the winner's home country to Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland's state government announced on Tuesday.

In return, the "island caretaker" will be expected to stroll the white sands, snorkel the reef, take care of "a few minor tasks" -- and report to a global audience via weekly blogs, photo diaries and video updates.
The successful applicant, who will stay rent-free in a three-bedroom beach home complete with plunge pool and golf buggy, must be a good swimmer, excellent communicator and be able to speak and write English.

"They'll also have to talk to media from time to time about what they're doing so they can't be too shy and they'll have to love the sea, the sun, the outdoors," said acting state Premier Paul Lucas.
"The fact that they will be paid to explore the islands of the Great Barrier Reef, swim, snorkel and generally live the Queensland lifestyle makes this undoubtedly the best job in the world."

This is a really interesting concept to me, concerning meaningful interactions with people who you only have electronic access to. I wonder if the candidate is allowed family present or what are the "few minor tasks" are. I've always been terrible at blogging, not thinking that i have anything really interesting to say or the impetus to actually bother with a blog until last semester when it was required for a class.

It really made me think of what meaningful communication i was having. If the only communication i could have was over the internet or electronically, how would that effect the way I dealt with people.
It's like when your mum or Dad say, "if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say it at all." Well sometimes i am all to ready to say "well if i don't have anything good or interesting to say then i won't say it at all." Probably not the best view, but what does everyone else think?