Grimm Tales.....

This Is the blog I started first and though it has been silent for far too long it has always been about free media that I think is worth your time. Over the last two years the has been some great TV and I plan to cover it.....

At the moment I am catching up on the goodness that is Grimm. I have to admit I liked the show initially for the nominal sidekick Monroe... And I still really like his the most and adore his story but the urban fantasy police procedural known as Grimm set in my new home state of Oregon has really won my heart. The character arcs are rich and complex and everyone has a good and a dark side to them. Grimm is more then just a re-telling of the fairy tales its an exploration of hat it is to be a caring being and it asks as much of its heroes as it does of its villains. I find myself wanting to k ow more of the mythology as much as I want to see more of the major players. Don't get me wrong Monroe and his lover are still my favorites just as much as Spike was my favorite in Buffy and Dargo was in Farscape but I do love the show and its supplanting Once as my favorite fantasy on TV....

Debates....

Ok

I have something very simple to say about the debate of tonight....

Look not at what was said I say... Politicians say a lot of things good and bad both and make promises that because of the way things work won't ever happen (unless it's for the 1% but that's a different argument....)

Look at behaviour.... Mitt acted in a way I remember very well...

I was bullied throughout grade school, high school and into some of my working life. I know for bullies and Mitt Romney is a stellar example of one. He acted totally entitled to have his way and ran roughshod over the rules of the debate. I would never have voted for him before but now I'm incensed...

Mitt must never have power other then the obscene amount he already has because if the money he inherited. He will forever be called money boo boo from now on. I'd have needed subtitles to understand him in full...

Don't vote Mitt... unless you want to vote him off This Planet Earth....

In the 90's I sold a hone in SF for an embarrassingly small amount of money... in looking back I probably got shafted by the person that was my agent...

Not So Best Buy

I don't know if you have been in to a local Best Buy to look at the Zune HD but I have and well its a real big let down.

Now dont get me wrong here - though I am no big fan of microsoft or windows for that matter but the Zune HD PMP is of interest to me and I am on the edge of getting one and was hoping to get some hands on to see how it feels. Seems that Best Buy has them for viewing but its not much better then seeing one on the internet or in a case. Hell is worse then seeing a video of it online since you get to touch it lashed to a post - powered if your lucky, I was not. How is this a way to sell a product, They pretty much insured I wont be getting one from Best Buy if I buy one and I won't be getting any games for my Wii from them either....

Just needed to vent....

Now by comparison I have to mention my experience at Borders the same day. I went there to look at a book about how we should probably change our diets by Mark Bitterman titled Food Matters (look here as to why) and I spotted the really good looking display for the Sony Reader... Hmmm they had two on display there marked with a warning that they were not working models... well I thought right that figures but as I was walking away a clerk told me that I could lift the reader to see a video presentation on the screen behind them and that after I asked that they were in fact working models.... well I did stop and toy around a bit and found that I liked the touch screen edition and feel really inclined to get one when I have the money....

That is a good example of the difference in a good display ... I had small interest in the sony reader but now may buy one while I had lots of interest in a Zune HD and still feel that I need a hands on to invest in one...

Food for thought...

and go check out the Sony Reader Touch... it may be B&W but it is a good item and with the opening of the drm its better then before... ...

Also still interested in an HD (hell Best Buy 's failings are not microsoft's fault) anyone know where you can test one....

quick sunday note

Hey there....

Ever the social media experimenter JC Hutchins is playing with his listeners again - in his podcast feed that delivers Hey Everybody and PE: Sword of Blood he has send out a pretty fun looking printout to further promote the Personal Effects Dark Arts novel; hell makes me wish I owned a printer. The file is a number of black and white artifacts (images) to be used as a coloring book. JC even included a text only version of the cover - sort of a do it yourself version for your own dark art....visions of squids and tentacles come to mind but I'm a long time Lovecraft fan so what else might you expect....

Take care and have fun coloring if you do...and remember to get your copy to push JC into the book sales charts

change it is a coming

Hey everybody (tm - JC Hutchins - Personal Effects D.A. comes out this tuesday)

Just wanted to blog about the day and try to make a habit of it for once.....

The news - I am not only out of the job/home hell that has plagued me this last year - hence no progress on any thing other then completing NANOWriMO - my partner and I actually have a home - so no homeless treking around the north west while our stuff is in storage.... some thing to be happy about at least

On to todays activities...

I went to the Rudy Rucker reading at borderlands (check their calander if you are or will be int the SF area) today and that was a great time - it pretty much is always a good time going there to see an author wether I am truly a fan or even just familiar with their work. I have been faminiar with his work since the days of cyberpunk being the buzz word of the genre.

If yo are unfamiliar with his work he has been writing in the genre since the mid 80's (I believe) and has written in various of the sub-genres including cyberpunk, steampunk and most recently singuliterrian (bad speller I am). Hearing him read his work and talk about his life as a writer was a pleasure and a great way to spend a nice san francisco afternoon. He read from his new book Hylozoic from somewhere about 2/3rds the way through; I expected something strange and interesting but witty and laugh out loud funny I was not. He is really a great presenter and that may come from having been teaching for 20+ years in math, computer science and philosophy (makes me wish I could have been a student of his). Though the book from his description to get us up to speed has lots of big ideas in it gleaned from science and the concept of hylozoic the book sounds to be about the lives of his characters wether they be human of alien pitchforks that have a deep south accent (I will miss his voice for the characer whe I read the copy I got)

the reading was something that I had said that I would want to go to but would not be unhappy to miss - well - I am really glad I went and - well - I did want to go - my intuition even made my feel it would be a good Idea.....

Things are looking up ---- I just need to see it more often....

thanks if you are reading this and let me know what you think if you do

take care

oh yeah I did want to post a link to the free download version of Postsingular the book that Hylozoic is a sequel to

Podcast - Book Trailers.......

Ok Here is the deal...

When it comes to me I feel a "real" (yeas you have to imagine me making the air quotes morion here) advantage at least when it comes to me where there is a real artifact (read book where I say Artifact) us the connection I feel to the person I have been listening to...

I find that I am more liable to contribute to the success and further the career of creative persons that I have a perceived personal connection to then to great writers whom I feel I should read....

I feel I should read people like Neil Gaimen since he is one of the most inventive fantasist of the age but I am more compelled to actually buy books by Scott Sigler, Seth Harwood, JC Hutchins(I could go on but there is a partial link list on the sidebar f these cool people) if they ever gets a real book contract since I have heard them on a regular basis, had email contact or follow them on twitter. Though most of them I have never met or like Sigler and Harwood only briefly met and hung out with - I feel a bond to these people that is more then just the connection to reading their work.

I love these guys - This is a message to all you podcasters I listen to out there...

You may not know it but you help me every day and maybe someday I will be able to thank you ....