Whether you’re a fan or not, this is interesting. The UPN network is running Buffy reruns this week and next, but not reruns from this season.
This week they’re playing “Hush”, the emmy-nominated episode from season Four (?), and probably one of the best one-shot episodes for the show.
Next week is The Body, which isn’t one of the best stand-alones, but is one of the best episodes — tremendous cast acting.
So, if you’re a fan, here’s another chance to check them out. If you’re not, this is a chance to see some of the episodes that make me rave about the show.
Better Killing, through the Internet
As [the winter solstice holiday of your choice] draws near, I find myself doing the things I usually do when things start to get a little stressful.
Killin’ stuff.
Back in Vermillion, it was Doom, Doom2, muds, and Xcom (still one of my favorite all-time games).
In Denver, I moved up to Warcraft, Warcraft II, and Diablo, not to mention more mudding than any sane person should subject themselves to.
After that, Starcraft, Nox, Diablo II… usually it’s multiplayer things that really get a lot of play at the Testerman house, because Jackie and I like doing that sort of thing together.
Nothing like glassing the surface of a planet with your loved one, y’know?
Never got into the mud-style pay-games, though — muds alone were so damn addictive. Still are, really, at least for me.
Now Blizzard is talking about some sort of similar thing, set in the World of Warcraft, built on the Diablo engine… Maybe even free servers, like Battlenet.
Dear lord, my clicking finger is starting to ache just thinking about it.
But only if it’s free. I can’t afford to expose an obsessive/additive personality to something I have to pay for.
(Except for comics, digital cable, and dvd’s, of course.)
Geek-out
Gamer stuff over on the (duh) gaming page.
Yes, geeky. Still, good to see people I hadn’t seen since a few days before my trip to the hospital — met some new people, Jackie got to meet some of the people I talk about all the time, and she and I were playing at the same table all day.
Basically we got to socialize and exert our (ahem) unique personalities, together, directing it at other people instead of each other, for 15 hours straight — not the kind of opportunity we’re often afforded.
Quality time.
It was just a really good day.
(Also, thanks giga-loads to Dave and Margie, who dog-sat for us and brought turkey soup to our house for us to wolf down — perfectly timed to coincide with our one-hour evening break.)
Say…
Does anyone have a link to that music video where Christopher Walken dances? I’ve never seen it, I feel lame, and I want to not feel lame, which ties directly into the link to the video, so HELP ME.
Machine Man
Jackie got the parts for a new computer yesterday, and we spent the evening getting all the hardware put together. The OS disk came into my possession this morning… and I can’t install it. I’m not allowed. Jackie wanted to be directly involved in the computer creation process this time, because she’s getting an IT degree, and wants to know “how the damn things go together.”
But I’m home all day.
Thus, I’ve done the only thing someone like me in a situation like this can do: Upgraded my own machine to the new OS (Win2000 pro, if you’re interested). This had led to 3 or 4 hours of hilarity as I track down updated drivers for my equipment, fix up my software that doesn’t want to run anymore, and browse from my still-perfectly-functional-on-Win98 laptop.
Aside from the overall geekiness of it all, and my stomach cramps, a pretty good day.
Speaking of my illness, I want to thank Xkot for putting up a mojo magnet on his site during my hospital stay. Ever little bit helped keep the e coli concerns of the doctor safely in the “Crackpot” column.
Brust on Writing, via Brust on Painting
Brust’s The Sun, the Moon, & the Stars isn’t about writing. It’s also one of the best books about writing, written by a writer, that I’ve read. A couple of the bits that I read before and liked have been banging around in my head, and I dug out the book and found them today.
When I get this far into a project, it always starts to drag, no matter how excited I am. The important thing is to keep going, and, no matter how much it hurts, to take care that each stroke is applied correctly. A lot of my worst work has been done during the middle stage of a project, when I feel that, if I’m sloppy here I can make up for it later — but you can only repaint something a certain number of times before you’re going to lose some of the luster, or, if you keep wiping things off with turpentine, before you hurt the canvas itself.
I took frequent breaks here; to sit back and rest. I read for a bit, painted for a bit, and read some more. The important thing at this point was to keep going, and not let myself get burned out.
I do know artists who say, “I can’t look at other people’s work while I’m painting because their style creeps in.” The first time I heard that, I did a cartoon of Gauguin’s style creeping into Cezanne’s work, and I called it “Such tragedy.” I thought it was pretty obvious, but the people who ought to get it never do.
I can’t understand that attitude. So, someone’s style has an influence on you. So what? Is his ghost going to come and push your brush around? […] Whoever else you’re looking at, you are the one doing the painting, and that’s that.
Tonight…
Friday
A long and crazy day, and the trip’s been going very well. Much laughing.
Upside: I”m sleeping like the dead, because I’m going straight through from 7 to midnight in constant “Be up, get excited, be funny, meet new people” mode.
Downside: I’m going straight through from 7 to midnight in constant “Be up, get excited, be funny, meet new people” mode.
A sidenote: if anyone’s considering a trip near Portland, I cannot suggest a trip to the McMannis (sp?) Edgefield strongly enough (I’ll post the link later). Amazing. The place is some sort of converted faming commune. Multiple buildings. They have their own water tower, they brew there own ale (mostly ale, anyway), they make their own wine (the cabernet is good, won’t be trying the rest). Their mascot animal is a black rabbit.
And they have covered every door and wall in the place with paintings of… all KINDS of weird stuff. I’m going to buy a disposable camera and take pictures of some of them today, but the place is gargantuan and I’ll probably run out of film before I make it out of the main building.
Oh, and they have their own golf course. And I don’t have anything to do til 6pm today…
…and I decided not to bring my clubs. Dangit.
Ah well. Next time I will, because I’m definately coming back here.