Something Sketchy This Way Comes

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Internet,

A young lady with 3 fur-children needs help to land safely in the Richmond, VA area. She was disowned by her remaining family after she would not give up her fur children, (one of whom is her SERVICE DOG!)in these tough economic times. Her story is here,
http://community.livejournal.com/note_to_dog/349376.html
and on her own LJ.
Please contact her on her journal here, http://firefall-varuna.livejournal.com/ if there is anything you can do to help.
Cross post, Amplify the signal, suggest a contact for her, help her find crash space where her dogs can also be. (Copy and paste if you wish!)

In this cold and dark time of year, we may not be able to fix EVERYTHING all at once, but we can fix ONE thing, then move on and fix ONE thing, and then...

The Shadowrun universe just keeps getting closer. (Or Cyberpunk if you prefer, but I like Shadowrun far better. It can haz elves.)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10408139-1.html

Lord Blackadder makes a cameo appearance in Rich's current Dr. Who webcomic!
http://comics.shipsinker.com/2009/12/03/the-stalker-of-norfolk-18/

I feel like there ought to be a third link in here to balance things out and sum the post up to the magical three, but have failed to trip across anything nearly as cool as the first two links so far. Ah, well.

I say, old chap - absolutely smashing!

Tweed ride comes to the District: freewheeling dandies bike through town

Much of Dr. Who just went on sale for 20% - 40% off (mostly 30%) at Barnes & Noble. Same for Red Dwarf.

But...Babylon 5 is currently 50% off for all seasons, and I Lack all seasons beyond season one.

AAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH! Need! More! Money!!

And so, curious about everyday life in and the vibes of the Washington, D.C. area, the intrepid comics artist has been quietly researching by reading through such slice-of-life blogs as she can find. Ah, teh intarwebs...enabling voyeurism in ways previously impossible!

Incidentally, if anyone has recommendations for good blogs, LJ's, online journals, etc. of that type for the D.C. area, I'd love to hear them. ^_^

In other news, we seem to have inadvertently acquired a pecan tree sapling. In addition to our now four (or five, I've lost track) little cherry tree saplings, if all these trees survive our backyard is going to become an orchard. Or the set for an anime.

After something like nearly a year between the last card and now, the next card in the Otaku Tarot series is finished!
You can see the full-sized version at zenzzen.deviantart.com/art/Between-142082247 .



Between (more usually known as "Death")
Anime: Tsubasa Chronicle
Characters: Yuuko, Sakura, Syaoran, Kurogane, Fai

Sakura and her friends journey once more between worlds, bound together by a common cause, yet each on a separate quest. Will they ever revisit the world they are leaving? They may, but it will have changed, and therefore cannot be said to be quite the same world. What world are they going to? Not even Mokona, who is in charge of the transportation, could say.

Yet each character faces the future in his or her own way. Sakura, whose memories became wings and scattered to the winds, faces each new world with open eyes and a willing heart. Her memories, though she seeks them, do not weigh her down. Syaoran follows Sakura because he loves her, and that love allows him to face his future with courage. Kurogane, though the victim of a painful past, also faces his future without looking backwards because he knows that the only way to move on is to go forward. Only Fai looks backwards, unable to move beyond his past despite his cheerful pretense otherwise. He moves forward, it is true, but not so much towards something as away from it. Of all the group, the chains of his past weigh most heavily on him.

Watching over them as they travel is Yuuko, the Dimensional Witch. Her presence is a reminder that in all things there must be balance; When one wishes to make a change, something old must be given up to make way for something new.

*****

Card 13 in the tarot is usually called "Death", but I have chosen to rename it "Between" because this is really what it signifies - a transition between one state and another, made with deliberate intent. Sometimes one isn't even aware of making the choices that lead to change until the change starts to happen, then suddenly it is there and out in the open to see.

Make no mistake, however - change can be scary! Often we do not know quite what we are leaping into, and so we worry about whether we are doing the right thing or not. It is natural to look backwards at where we've been. But this card is all about motion, about moving from one thing to another or one state to another. We aren't quite what we used to be, but we don't know what we're going to turn into just yet. It can be very unsettling, especially to the people around us who might not have been expecting the change. But if you keep in mind that the important thing is to keep moving forward, chances are good that you will land on your feet - and even if you don't, the new scenery is bound to be interesting!

*******************
"What's Yuuko doing here?", I hear you cry. "She isn't a death goddess or anything!" Well spotted, friend. I crave your indulgence.

This card turned out to be even harder than The Hanged Man to find a suitable series for. I thought I knew what anime I was going to use (Bleach), and then I realized that it simply didn't say what I wanted to say. There's no end of anime out there now that features Shinigami, Death gods, and all sorts of creepy, haunted entities...but none of them worked for me at all! After a while I realized that whatever series I used for this card, it probably wasn't going to have anything overtly to do with death. Problem was, that opened up the field of choices a LOT. Somehow I had a feeling that it was going to be something by CLAMP, but it took a year to finally peg down the one that was close to what I wanted to say about the concepts presented in card 13 of the tarot.

Still, the renamed title isn't quite exactly what I wanted it to say. For a while I was going to call the card "Transition", or "Transformation" but those words sounds more scholarly than evocative. The usual title, "Death", was clearly right out because it has twenty squijillion tons of baggage I didn't want to truck along. Honestly I don't think there's a single word in English that conveys in a nice, snappy way what I'd really like to say about this concept of scary-yet-exciting-change where you don't know what you're getting into but you know you can't stay where you were, either. "Between" is snappy, but it sounds a little more static than I'd like. This card is all about motion. If anybody knows of another word or no-more-than-three-word phrase that fits that description, please let me know!

One of the nice things about working in the music department at B&N is that I often get to hear music that I otherwise never would have. A lot of it is sort of 'meh', but sometimes I stumble across some pretty awesome things that aren't precisely mainstream, so I thought I'd share a couple of them here.


First, a neat little band called "Sleepthief". The name sounds like it ought to be a heavy metal band bent on depriving you of your hard-earned z's by sheer dint of noise. In fact, they are a suavely etherial trip-hop group whose songs feature lush, romantic lyrics. They only have two albums out right now, but I found their most recent one, "Labyrinthine Heart" to be a real treat to listen to. You can check out samples of the album here:

music.barnesandnoble.com/Labyrinthine-Heart/Sleepthief/e/754863210228/


Next up...well, first I have to explain something. One of the characters in my webcomic, Amadan, can play the fiddle. I never got a chance to show this in the comic, but I've sort of always had my ear open for something that might sound like Amadan would sound when playing the fiddle. And then, this album came into the store during the summer:



And I thought, "My god, he even sort of looks like Amadan!" And then I played the album. Folks, David Garrett is amazing. There's a reason why he's one of the up and coming stars of classical crossover music. If my webcomic was ever turned into something that featured sound, I'd totally hire Mr. Garrett to play for Amadan (if I could afford it, which would of course never happen). But, go. Listen. You will not regret it:
music.barnesandnoble.com/David-Garrett/David-Garrett/e/028947818700/


And finally, because they are just so awesome even though they are vaguely mainstream by now, I'd like to alert those who don't yet know that after a hiatus of five years, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra has finally released a new album, called "Night Castle":


This isn't a Christmas-themed album. Despite the name and its release date, it isn't even a Halloween-themed album. It's simply a concept album filled with the epic rock ballad/classical riff music and intensely personal sort of social message that the group has become known for. There's LOTS of music in this two-disc album, and I think fans of the Trans-siberian Orchestra (like me) will find "Night Castle" well worth picking up. You can check out samples here, although you really need the album with the booklet to get what the story's about:

music.barnesandnoble.com/Night-Castle/Trans-Siberian-Orchestra/e/075678959295/


Happy listening, and remember - music is a food group!

I'm looking for suggestions for music with icicles in. Preferably not just your small, garden-variety tinkly icicles that grin toothily from a rooftop, but also the ominous, massive pillars of ice that would be Sincerely Inadvisable To Stand Underneath. I'm thinking classical or new age would work best, but I'm willing to listen to any sort of music as long as it has icicles in it.

Anyone?

This isn't meant to be a rant, really, but more of an observation. I dislike making sweeping generalities, but as I continue working in the music department of Barnes and Noble, I've noticed a trend: in about eighty or ninety percent of the cases when someone comes to me looking for a particular piece of music or a particular cd, but they have only the vaguest clues of information to go on and yet expect me to magically figure out what they want and produce it for them...well, roughly eighty or ninety percent of the time it turns up that they're looking for some kind of religious or gospel music.

Another thing I encountered today, and first let me say that the lady involved was very nice throughout the entire time I dealt with her. But there was this that disturbed me: she was looking for a cd with guided meditations for religion. As there are multiple religions that do this, naturally I asked her if she had a certain one in mind. Her response, though again very nice and polite, was "Catholicism" with an undercurrent of 'Well OBVIOUSLY Catholic, duh! What else could there possibly BE??'.  >___<   Now this is just a personal opinion, but I find that an attitude of not even considering that others might have a fundamental difference of opinion on something as important as one's relationship to the universe/God/whatever, goes so far through Arrogance as to come out on the other side - and worse for the journey, at that. 

Again, she was very nice and polite, and I am not angry with her. Yet I am disturbed, because I encounter this attitude in quite a number of equally nice Christians. What's worse, I don't think they're even aware of it.

And yet again with the completely unconnected references to Actual Elves in Scandanavia. Is somebody trying to tell me something???

I am vastly pleased.  The other day the U.S. mail finally sent along my copy of  "The Complete Book of Scriptwriting" by J. Michael Straczynski, who is of course noted for being a  stellar writer and producer with such credits to his name as "Murder, She Wrote", "The Real Ghostbusters", and of course was the series creator and executive producer of "Babylon 5". Oh, and he wrote some comic books, such as the black cover issue of Spiderman that came out right after 9/11.

Anyway, I'm vastly pleased for many reasons, some of which involve the excellent advice given in the book, but the two most important of which are these: Some of the writing quirks I find myself going through which I thought were possibly the wrong things to do, turn out to be things he notes as common and healthy parts of the writing process, which gives me hope and better trust in my creative instincts.  The other is, included in this book by way of being an example of something, is an episode premise for an episode of "The Real Ghostbusters" which never actually got produced.

Let's say that again: this book basically includes a brand new episode of "The Real Ghostbusters" written by the show's best writer, with enough description that you can see the thing unfold in the theater of your mind's eye.

Life's good. Now, off to write!

Ok, I've got to wonder something. For years I never heard of this phenomenon: Now, all of a sudden, I keep tripping left and right over random references to Icelandic Elves in the context of people sincerely believing in them. o_O  First was in the article on why Iceland's banks failed (which boiled down to: Dude, Vikings tried to be bankers), then something else just as mundane which I forget, and now it seems one of the 5 episodes-out-of-3-season's-worth episodes of Paranormal TV on Hulu mentions them as well. I mean...what?  o_____O

Can I just say it is a damned peculiar feeling to take a facebook quiz and come up with a result that is illustrated by a picture that you, yourself did and had no idea was being used for said quiz?  o_____O

Here's the picture in question: http://zenzzen.deviantart.com/art/Granny-Weatherwax-72754197

I'm not mad - a bit flattered, really, but it's a bit like turning a corner, tripping and faceplanting into the laundry you thought you'd left at home.

Ok, so Rich Morris may have finally wrapped up his "Ten Doctors" comic, but he's started a brand new comic crossover featuring...

...wait for it...

The Doctor and the pre-USA cast of Forever Knight!!!!!  Go Nick!!  Go Schanke!! Go Jeanette!!  Go check out "Forever Janette" at  comics.shipsinker.com/2009/06/03/forever-janette-1/ !  I can't wait to see which Doctor he's chosen to feature in this story.

Neil Gaiman has a worrysome post in his blog about current activities regarding the NIH and the new guideline proposals for stem cell research. Apparantly the new, looser-but-still-conservative guidelines that have been proposed after President Obama's lifting of the bans on stem cell research, are currently up for public review and comment.

The new guidelines can be found here: stemcells.nih.gov/policy/2009draft.htm

The problem is that

"Not only are the guidelines far more conservative than we had hoped, but
opponents of the research are systematically flooding the comment process.

Conservative religious bodies, have launched a national campaign to attack early stem cell research by mass emails to the NIH.

 *"The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) launched a new
"Oppose Destructive Stem Cell Research" campaign today, equipping citizens
to contact Congress and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to oppose
embryonic stem cell research ."  -- WASHINGTON, May 6
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ www.usccb.org/stemcellcampaign

Is their anti-research campaign having an effect?

Dr. Wise Young of Rutgers University , ". of the 6000 plus comments that NIH
has received concerning the draft guidelines, 99% were from people who
opposed embryonic stem cell research."-Carecure Forum
http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/showpost.php?p=1039001&postcount=12

Imagine what the enemies of research will do with a statistic like that!
Think of the State Senators and Representatives who have to fight for stem
cell funding-they will be hammered-no politician ever wants to stand alone.

Supporters of stem cell research must be heard."

Now, you don't have to believe the way I do, but personally I think that matters this important shouldn't be dictated by a small group of people who happen to be able to organize themselves well. So if you, like me, think that stem cell research holds some value for the future then please visit nihoerextra.nih.gov/stem_cells/add.htm and post a comment! You have until May 26 to make your voice heard.

A link to the full article I clipped a section from is here:  docs.google.com/Doc

Today I found a five-leaf clover next to my garden patch. Teh Internets cannot agree as to whether this is meant to be super-lucky, or super-unlucky. I guess I'll leave it where it is and see what happens - which, I suppose, means that the plant itself is fairly lucky in that I'm planning to let it live, regardless of whatever else does or does not happen.

Also...why the heck is it that I can hear the strange booming noises in our neighborhood that shake our house occasionally, as though someone a few streets away was using construction equipment to slam something heavy into the ground, or like a semi truck is hitting a pothole or something, but other people cannot perceive this? They can't even feel the house vibrate. o___O You'd think they'd at least notice that...

A lot of people over the years have watched "Star Trek" and said to themselves, "That ought to be true." Then they went forth to Make It So.

Now, it seems, certain people have said much the same thing to themselves about the Harry Potter universe, to wit: the Weasley Clock:

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2009/5/9/weasley-clock-ticks-closer-to-becoming-reality

Personally I'm waiting for someone to perfect the flying broomstick so we can start having proper games of Quiddich.

DUDE.

HOLY.

FRINAZZLE!

http://www.thehuntforgollum.com/updates.htm

I will be eagerly awaiting the release of this. This was put together by the same dude who did the fan trailor for "Grayson", which I'd totally go to see in the theatres if it was a real movie. Somebody for $deity's sake hire this guy and give him money to make feature length movies!!!!!!!!!

scifiwire.com/2009/04/terry-pratchetts-discworl.php

I'd like to live on Treacle Mine Road.

So yesterday Russ goes up into the attic to do some work towards getting the proper amount of insulation up there, and accidentally puts his foot through the ceiling in my art studio. Thankfully, he wasn't hurt, and afterwards he put lots of duct tape on the ceiling to keep insulation from falling down through the hole.  And I thought, no big deal, he's ok and so what if there's a temporary hole, it doesn' t keep me from working.

Except...

Now, every so often out of the corner of my eye I catch sight of the dark mass of duct tape on the white ceiling, and my brain screams an alert at me... CEILING NINJA!!!!! >___<

I am glad the contractor is coming soon to fix this.