Clear As Crystal

Erroneous

T.Frecks — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:38:01 +0000

Such a fun word, erroneous.

Found this shirt at the local H&M. Could anyone please explain to me why the blaster pistols appear to have lightsaber blades coming out of them? Granted, the original posters had much longer “blasts” – if you will – coming out of them than typically appeared in the movie, but this shirt is just pushing the boundaries, here. They taper for goodness’ sake!

I wanted to buy it anyway.

Cinephile

T.Frecks — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:27:15 +0000

I’ve seen an unprecedented amount of films in the past six months or so.

“Unprecedented” being a relative term to my own norm of film-watching, obviously. I’ve been to the cinema more times in the past few months than I have in the past year previous, and due to my free rentals I’ve seen more DVD releases since I’ve started the retail grind at Blockbuster than I had in the past handful of years. “Handful”, again, being relative; I don’t quite mean five years – that being the usual amount included in a handful – but I don’t quite mean two years – that being the usual amount meant by “a couple”; it’s somewhere in between there, I believe. Regardless…

Regardless. Let me digress here for a moment to note how much I loathe the bastardization “irregardless”. Really, people? You can’t tell that the word “irregardless” is an exercise in redundancy? The term is “regardless”. Regardless.

So, regardless… the whole movie addiction has me wanting to start writing reviews. I know I’ve said this before, but I keep putting it off. Maybe because I’m not in a writing mood once I’ve finished watching one. Maybe this week I’ll actually get to it.

A Conversation on the Attitudes of Band Haircuts

T.Frecks — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:59:05 +0000

I’ve recently caught myself glaring back at me from mirrors. It takes a moment to notice, but I’m pretty sure I’m scowling at my hair. As the battle between good and evil, so, too, the battle between Short and Long rages on with eternal fervor. I brought up the point with my guitarist from (Thus Far) Unnamed Band of Awesome. It quickly turned into a comedic repartee, as with most of our conversations, and we mused upon the differing attitudes of frontwomen and side men via a surplus of CAPS-Lock (also a common occurrence which we noted earlier in the conversation) and generous amounts of silliness.

What follows is a loosely edited transcript of said conversation (mostly to delete digressions from topic that wouldn’t make sense out of context). Amusingly enough, I did not have to spell check or edit much punctuation to make it appear more English-language-friendly – we both type like smart people.

Me: I may cut all my hair off. Rashly.

Joe: I once shaved my head clean from shoulder length

Joe: DO IT.

Me: Haha. Pixie cut time, again.

Joe: YES.

Joe: CHOP CHOP

Me: Haha, you want me to have pixie haircut?

Joe: I like short hair on pretty much anyone.

Me: Most boys like long hair, that’s funny.

Joe: Well, you may have noticed, I’m not most boys.

Joe: Either way. Short hair > long.

Joe: SO DO IT.

Me: Pretty much.

Me: I’m sick of the long hair.

Me: But several people have threatened bodily harm if I chop it off.

Joe: Fuck ‘em.

Joe: Do what you want.

Me: I feel like my hair is a prison.

Me: It’s this evil prison that’s all “Be girly. Spend time ‘doing’ me. Make me lightly caress your shoulders so you look vulnerable.”

Me: And then I chop it all off and it’s like WEIGHT LIFTED.

Joe: Yep.

Me: Suddenly I am a rebel.

Me: I also think short fits the role of band frontwoman.

Me: The frontwoman is all “Hair! Dammit! Do not get all up in my shit while I am BUSY UP HERE ON STAGE!”

Me: So you chop it off.

Joe: It’s the opposite for a not-frontwoman, for a side man.

Me: True story.

Joe: It’s like “HAIR. GROW. DISTRACT ME. PLEASE. BE ALL GROSS AFTER SHOWS.”

Me: “I PROMISE NOT TO SHOWER EVER, JUST GROW INTO AN UNRULY MESS, I BEG OF YOU”

Joe: Yep.

Snowing

T.Frecks — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:46:13 +0000

It’s snowing out there. I love driving at night. More so in the snow. It’s its own oxymoron: constantly in motion, completely silent. It’s eerie and beautiful.

I stopped at the corner store for a soda on my way back from the gaming session, only to find I was self-cast in a five-second horror film.

I was on my way out to the car, bag in hand, keys already out, ready to unlock the door via the push-pad code system built into the driver’s side door, when it happened. I heard a rustling behind me. Shkt, shkt, shkt. (Gotta love onomatopoeia, eh?) It was like the sound of Wolverine’s adamantium claws shooting out of his knuckles, minus the metallic ringing overtones. Or – perhaps – like someone scuffing their shoes along pavement lightly dusted with new snow. I turned at the sound. Close up: girl’s eyes. Wide shot: empty parking lot. Close up: rustling empty plastic bag abandoned in parking lot by previous customer.

And that would’ve been the end of that… had I not – at that precise moment – heard a grinding sound directly behind me: inside the truck cabin. Someone was in the truck! They were in the truck and I’d turned my back to them to look at a stupid plastic bag! The bag was a decoy! The bag is a lie!

My knee had hit the automatic seat adjustor. It ground to a halt as I removed my leg from the button. Great, I thought, now I feel like an idiot. At least Mom can fit back in the car with her long-ass legs.

A Month

T.Frecks — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:23:57 +0000

They say it takes a month to create a new habit. Or something like that. I don’t know exactly what they say, but they say something involving “it takes a time period to verb a habit”. You know.

At any rate, it’s been almost a month of writing daily in here – and I know a missed a few days back there while I was doing the hardcore reading thing – but that means I’m in the home stretch now. If I can keep this up for approximately one more week, the habit should be so ingrained in my daily goings-ons that I won’t have to think about logging on to write, it should just happen.

Perhaps I give it too much credit. It’ll always take some sort of mental effort, I’m sure. But you catch the drift.

Excerpts

T.Frecks — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 06:53:52 +0000

Brainstorming for lyrics for our latest song in the band has yielded little result on the completion level, but a few little snippets of goodness.

“You hit me like spring, in like a lamb and out like a lion…”

“…like your gums let go of your teeth when you grow out of them.”

“Pack it up, put it down, seal it in, shut it out, and push it away.”

Muddled Skies

T.Frecks — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:11:53 +0000

It always irks me on some level when the sky at night is too cloudy to see the stars. It’s like being disconnected from something, an abrupt plug-pulling, jarring sort of effect. As if being unable to see past the low atmosphere of our planet is rude on someone’s part; whosoever is up there blocking the view, being inconsiderate.

“Down in front!” being the proverbial response to that one, if I do say so myself.

A WordPress Testimonial

T.Frecks — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:33:28 +0000

Me, on WordPress as a whole:

“I love WordPress. And it shares the love, believe me; it loves you right back. Like a puppy when you’ve been out of the house, and then you come home from work, or even the corner store, and he sees you again and if he could talk, he’d be screaming ‘Oh my god, oh my god, you’re home! You’re back! You’re back, you’re home! I love you, I love you, I love you! LETMELICKYOURFACE!’ That’s how much WordPress loves you back. Except it’s a website, so it doesn’t try to lick your face.”

Slacker!

T.Frecks — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 02:22:56 +0000

Okay, okay, I’ve been slacking a bit on the writing front, but not for naught, I assure you, interwebs! I was applying myself more vigorously, an end in sight, to the reading of my latest novel aim of conquest: The Halfling’s Gem. I’m done! I wanted to finish before the weekend so that I could start in on the newest one – I, Lucifer.

On that note, I’ve decided to document my reading list here, even though it is also saved on Good Reads. Here’s the start (in no particular order):

I, Lucifer | Glen Duncan

Lolita | Vladimir Nabokov

Stone of Tears | Terry Goodkind

The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death | Charlie Huston

When You Are Engulfed In Flames | David Sedaris

Youth In Revolt | C.D. Payne

Choke | Chuck Palahniuk

Rant | Chuck Palahniuk

Diary | Chuck Palahniuk

Just A Geek | Wil Wheaton

Dancing Barefoot | Wil Wheaton

The Happiest Days of Our Lives | Wil Wheaton

Sunken Treasure | Wil Wheaton

Memories of the Future | Wil Wheaton

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us | Daniel H Pink

The God Engines | John Scalzi

You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop To A Coffee Shop | John Scalzi

Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded | John Scalzi

The Red Violin

T.Frecks — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:15:57 +0000

Just finished watching The Red Violin, an old flick that I grabbed on a whim as a free rental from work.

Beautiful.

It had one of those great stories that’s really captivating and that spans hundreds of years of history. More on that later, I’m too tired to write in detail tonight – but I did get on the blog and post this much, so I’m proud of myself insofar as that!