1000 buffalo stampede

Being a fan of the Firefly series, I caught the trailer for Serenity – the movie based on the tv show – when it premiered at Apple’s site on Tuesday. Now, I have many friends who are very excited for the Star Wars film. I’m looking forward to it, but Serenity – that’s a movie I’ll be seeing, hand’s down. I’ve seen the tv show, ah, many times – as I have the collection on DVD.

Interestingly enough, there’s now a Firefly rpg being planned, through Margaret Weis, of Dragonlance fame. Hopefully, it’ll turn out to be decent – it sounds like a full color, nice quality production.

Serenity, ma-shong!

Sigh. Some days, you feel like you’ve gone over to the Dark Side. I finally gave in and picked up Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac. Being, among other things, a freelance writer is becoming burdensome without Word. And I’m a huge fan of Excel as well, being a spreadsheet junkie. So, now I’ve got them. I don’t much care for Entourage for email, but it does have a fairly nifty project management utility. Tracking my email, files, schedule and tasks for the entire project in one dashboard – very handy. Frankly, I wish I had Entourage at work for just this reason.

So, chugging away on the QuestWorlds draft has gotten an extra boost, as I’m able to flip on the revision feature (another live-by feature I use during the day job when working contracts). Yes, I’m becoming a nut about version tracking of documents as well.

Well, it’s official and all (being post send-off party and all): the Taipan, my friend Amar, is moving to Portland. After failing to whoop him in a few rounds in the Battletech simulator, all that’s left to do is wish him good luck up with his life north up the coast. Where it snows. Heh. Odd. One of them, Mr. Mean, flees to a place where it’s hotter than the sun; the other goes to where it gets snowing.

I’ve found as I’ve kept my blog that it fills a few purposes for me. It’s a multi-functional tool. It helps me hone my writing, and keep in touch with friends. It gives me a little soapbox to shout at the world; a place to comment on things I see. Some days it’s funny; some days it’s not so funny. Some days, it’s my stress filter – my get-it-out-of-my-system. Some days, something just slaps me hard in the face, and unless I make some attempt to slap back, I know it’s just going to torque me further and further. Today’s one of those days …

(AP via SF Gate): A 9-year-old girl was raped, bound and buried alive, kneeling and clutching a purple stuffed dolphin, state prosecutors said in documents released Wednesday.

As far as I’m concerned, there is no appropriate punishment for the piece of trash that killed poor Jessica Lunsford (and cases likewise which aren’t in the news). There is really nothing that we can think of do to that (self-confessed) murderer and rapist that would be fitting – and at times like this, I’m pretty damn good at coming up with things that might do. That bastard buried that little girl 150 yards – within sight – of her house. I can’t even begin to imagine what Jessica’s last thoughts must have been – I don’t even think I have the strength to live with the knowledge if it were possible to know.

There aren’t enough floors covered in broken glass and nails, not enough torture chambers and death camps to give John Couey an even measure of what he did to that girl. A question whether anything even fits the description of “cruel and unusual punishment” when it comes to giving this beast his due. Oh, he’s no human – he seems to have opted out of the social contract in a grotesquely cruel manner. I, for one, don’t know that he’s entitled to the benefits of the social contract he so clearly discards.

Hang the bastard. We’d never dream of torturing him – even though we all know it’s what he really deserves. So hang the bastard by the neck until dead, and let the vultures take their fill while he hangs rotting.

I haven’t seen Sin City yet, but I intend to; I’m not one for movie theaters in general. But, I just caught a piece on 60 Minutes about the making of Sin City. Interviewees include Frank Miller (author of Sin City, and much more), Robert Rodriguez, and Bruce Willis. Fascinating stuff – they filmed the entire film in Rodriguez’ garage against a green screen. They had the filming wrapped up in days. Apparently, the film cost $10 million – and made back twice that in the first two weeks.

I love the look of the film – captures the look of the graphic novels perfectly.