Random Cthulhu

Do you remember Bozo's Circus?

Da da da da da da da da da duh duh da DUM!

Aw, we'll have to try again, it's an elder god, erm I mean Don't-Care-Bear-ulhu.

Tomorrow I'll have a review of Joe Konrath's books: Whiskey Sour and Rusty Nail.

I should say, I'm going to point out da tings he got wrong about da cidy of broad shoulders my friend.

Children First Indeed

Mrs. Prop is "out of town" (she's in Chicago and since we live in Mundelein, which isn't even in Cook county then technically she's out of town, even though we live in "Chicagoland" and she is really only 45 minutes to 6 hours away depending on rush hour).


That means that I took off of work to be with the little Props (hence the first image today) since we don't want them to be home alone while I'm at work (I really like the bloody handprints, that's a nice touch).

I have also been naughty. I was supposed to take this time on my own to edit my mystery story, write a new story and do prep work for my NaNoWriMo novel. Instead I've monkeyed around on the computer doing almost anything but.


This is me perusing the Necronomicon instead of doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Nothing but trouble can come from this. Mark my words.





Oh, and I'm supposed to be working on Halloween decorations. I'm not one of those people who think Halloween is the second coming of Xomercial Xmas. No Xmasy lights and cutsie stuff like that. I have a giant spider and a house-hugging web (made of 1/4" nylon rope so it can't get away). The spider is up, but the web isn't yet (of course the spider goes up first so she can "spin" the web).

I'm also building a new UFO. My attempt last year was destroyed (probably aliens who didn't want it known exactly what their crafts look like).

Finally, I have been away from this blog (and Miserable Donuts) for several days. I know you gentle readers have been holding your breaths, thinking, "when will he return, is he alright, have dark cultists captured him, or Nayrlathotep?" That's why I'm regaling you with all these Cthulhuloid images today.

Fear not, well, okay fear, FEAR A LOT!

Friday Cthulhu

Tonight is SciFi Friday Night. It's also scout night.

How do these go together? Whell, when I was a young Boy Scout Dr. Who was on channel 11 on Sunday nights.

Now that I'm an older Girl Scout leader there is a new Dr. Who and he's on the SciFi channel on Friday nights.

All of this made me think about the movie for which today's Cthulhu image is a poster. Apparently a SILENT, black and white movie has recently been made based on HPL's short story "Call of Cthulhu." I'm going to try to find and see it.

Anyone out there know if it's out and where it can be found?

Giant Garden Gnomes of Doom

I showed this image to someone at work today. I was planning on using it for my wallpaper for October.

He said that that conical things in the middle ground looked like giant garden gnomes.

Drat! There goes my image of this. I can't look at it and think scary thoughts anymore, all I can see are harmless porcelain oddities.

That reminds me of the first time I actually saw The Shining. I was in college and I had a goofy friend that quoted the movie all the time (redrum, redrum). When I finally saw it myself I was laughing at all the reminders of my friend.

Peeps Cthulhu

I found this elder sign made from old Peeps candies and thought it was pretty cool.

I'm feeling better today about my "writing career." I guess I won't give up on it.

Maybe the sugary candy evil made me do it.

Speaking of that, I've been eating junk again. I had ice cream yesterday (promised myself a pint of Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough when I ended my 90 day work out program). Today I had Nutella on a bagel, then another bagel with butter, then a quarter bag of Lite popcorn, but with Butter Buds. I also had a double quarter pounder with cheese, fries, a double cheeseburger and a Coke (yes a real Coke, not diet).

Funny that only the Nutella tasted as good as I remembered. Good thing I was planning on ending the eating madness after today anyway.

Rejected!

I submitted my story "Lest Too Light Winning Make the Prize Light" to Apex, a scifi e-magazine, and it was rejected.

Ugh, in 18 years of writing I have made a grand total of $10 dollars.

Take me now Cthulhu!

Go Bears!

I have no idea what this photo is of, or who it is, but the guy next to Cthulhu is wearing a green and gold tee-shirt so maybe he's a Packer fan about to meet his timely end.

Bears beat the Packers 27-20, amazing. The stars must have been right I guess.

Favre is now tied for most carreer interceptions (with one time Bear George Blanda).

Any day the Packers loose is a good one, any day the Bears win is better and any day the Bears beat the Packers is GREAT!

Saves?!

I'm not sure what Cthulhu saves (this is from a site called Spkiemarket), but maybe it's an oximoron like Cubs win.

This seemed like a good one for Sunday.

BTW, I wanted to say thank you to all the fallen Firefighters and all those who risk their lives every other day. My family has a long tradition of firefighters and I feel a certain kinship (two of my brothers and my dad are firefighters).

Saturday Morning Cthulhu

It's Saturday morning and I woke up with such a headache. I had some crazy dreams last night. It must me my new pajamas. They were made in some place that starts with "R'L" something.

My Dad just had surgery Thursday and we are going to visit him and my in-laws. I see lots of driving in my future.

Wow, I'm psychic now too!

Evil Election Results

They sure did vote for a lesser evil. My biggest little Prop lost her election.

She had a lot of good issues and an actual platform, but alas, grade school elections are all about popularity (maybe they all are, but I'm not that cynical yet).

The good thing is she went to the teacher moderating the Student Council and asked that her campaign promises be honored. The teacher told her that she could take charge of them and made my little Prop the Commissioner of Suggestion Boxes.

So, although she lost she is still on the council (Kobayashi Maru) and still able to honor her promises. I'm so proud!

Cthulhu Election Day

Today (Thursday) was election day at my little Props' school.

My oldest is running for Secretary. So, like da good Chicagoan I am I voted a couple o' times and I made sure all my dead realitaves voted too. If all my daughter's ward captains did their jobs she should be fine. Da results come out Friday.

Dead people voting is very Lovecraftian, don't you think?

Who do you think would win in a fight between Da Coach and Da Elder Gods my friend?

It's Cthulhu Time Again

It's that time of year again. That time when the stars are right, I'm getting geared up for NaNoWriMo, the weather is changing and even that which cannot die lies sleeping.

Anywho, I've been exercising like crazy because of that P90 Challenge and it's almost over (I promised myself a pint of Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough).

Now it's time to edit my "summer" mystery project (so I can sell it for big dollaro$), and work on my Halloween decorations.

I'll post photos of my big spider and her web once they're up.

I'm also going to try to rebuild my UFO (cross your fingers and pray to the god of your choice).

I haven't talked about Rugby and the RWC because I've been too busy. There is the working out, but I have also changed departments (meaning more training and a new qualification for me) and I have changed shifts (I'm now on 3rd, 2230 - 0700 Sunday through Thursday).

I volunteered for the change at work. It's a good career move and it works better with the little Props' schedules.

I have finished Harry Potter Book 7, but I didn't want this to become a Harry Potter site. If you want to discuss it, I'd be glad to though.

Funny that even though I'm retired from the Active Guard, I don't really have any additional time.

A big chunk of my old unit is being called up to go to Iraq in the 4th Quarter and I'm going to try to help the Family Readiness Group (they support the families of folks that are deployed). Our FRG was WOEFULLY inadequate when I went to Afghanistan and I want to fix that.

Rugby RUGBY RUGBY!!!

The RWC (Rugby World Cup) started today at 1:00PM my time.

I programmed my STUPID TV to tape the France v Argentina AND the USA v England and it didn’t work!!!! I’ll figure that dang thing out yet.

There are 48 games total (so I still have 46 more to get it right) from now until October. I’m rooting for New Zealand (Ka Mate!) since the USA will be lucky to win one game.

I had gotten the cable (then satellite) package that had Fox Sport World especially because they had Rugby. That was how I saw the last RWC. A year ago or so FSW was castrated and became Fox Soccer Channel (they removed almost all their Rugby). I was dieing, but now Mrs. Prop (God bless her heart) found out that we have Setanta Sport channel in our package. They claim they’re carrying all the games.

Can you say Woo Hoo? I knew you could.

Also, on Miserable Donuts there is a very nifty video of yours truly playing Rugby in Champaign – Urbana two weeks ago. I’m wearing number 1.

Potter Clarification

The previous post contained a prediction made a couple of days before the seventh and final (by my prediction) Harry Potter book came out.

I wrote "opinions" which now seems like my review of the book after I had read it. I have not finished the book, but the day after it came out I searched the web to find out if my predictions were correct.

Number 1, we'll have to wait on. Numbers 3 and 4, that Dumbledore is alive and Snape killed the horcrux were both completely wrong. Numer 2 though, was spot on and by far the most important one in my mind.

Another thing, I commented that The Order of the Phoenix omitted the part of Snape's memories where Lily (Harry's mom) saves Snape from James Potter's teasing. Now, in light of the last book that seems like either a bigger gaff than before OR it was planned to avoid reminding people of the relationship between Snape and Lily and thus providing one more clue that Snape was not evil.

So, who's read the last book and what do they think?

Prop on Potter (and Flyboys)

I just saw Flyboys. I'm glad they made a WWI fighter pilot movie, but I wish they'd have been just a little more historically accurate. For instance, all the Germans are flying Red Triplanes. I'm pretty sure Red was rare if not unique to Baron Von Richtoffen. I caught a few other things out of place, but it was enjoyable. I was going to rip it up for historical inaccuracy, but there are already enough sites that have done that. This site is VERY specific.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – I watched this two days ago. I didn't put any spoilers in it so don't worry.

Well, they did at least one thing very right. In the book, I feel that Harry whines throughout. I just felt like slapping him in the book. In the movie it is better balanced and is shown less as whining and more as frustration. I really appreciated that.

Three things really struck me.

The actors are too old for their parts. I think that's been said other places before ad nauseaum, but unfortunately it's true. My remedy would be to skip the sixth movie and jump right into the seventh. I think the sixth movie will be anticlimactic after all is revealed in the seventh book anyway. All the suspense and good storytelling (finally) will have paid off already.

The second thing is that there are scenes where some of the actors don't have lines. Jenny [EDIT: Ginny] Weasley goes through the entire movie and the only things she says are her spells and curses. It looks to me like the director felt that we all needed to see those characters, we wanted to see them, but there just wasn't enough time in the film for their storylines. I don't know enough about filmmaking to give an answer, but I can see if it is wrong and this was wrong.

They left out some small, but I thought important points. I am not a dyed in the wool fanatic and I don't have all the books memorized. I read that book so long ago that I forgot what happens in it and I get things mixed up between the books, so you know that if I spot an omission it was probably something memorable. The biggest one of these is when Harry gets into Snape's thoughts and sees his father teasing and bullying Snape when they were both in school. What they don't show is how Lilly, Harry's mom, saves Snape. I think they should have left that in.

That said, I enjoyed it, especially since the tickets were a gift (my opinion is that Jo Rowlings has enough of her own money and I'm not going to give her any more of mine). It had some really great wizard battles and some pump your fists kind of scenes. I recommend it (especially if you can get it for free).

Now I am going to make public my opinions on the seventh book. Mark these down and note the date:

1. The seventh book will be the LAST of the Harry Potter books. I do not think it will be the last book set in that universe, but I think that if J.K Rowlings decides it is the last book there is no force in the world that can change her mind, but I also think that she loves that universe (or world if you will) too much to leave it.

2. Snape is a Dumbledore man. That's right, no quibbling about it, no reservations. Snape is a Dumbledore man. I don't know how he got out of the oath he made, but I do know that he didn't kill Dumbledore. I even have a theory of how he made it look like he killed him, but didn't. Rowlings had been trying with very poor effect to paint Snape as a bad guy and she finally found a way to do it convincingly. It is still the Snape that is loyal however.

3. Dumbledore is not dead! He explained it all to Malfoy. Dumbledore told Malfoy that they could make it look like he was dead. It was all a set up by Dumbledore, in front of two of the most unimpeachable witnesses (Harry and Draco).

4. Snape actually killed the horcrux of Voldemort. That's what he was aiming the curse at, not Dumbledore. I guess this is a minor thing after the other three, but I had to say it, it may be important.

Any questions?

The Camera Adds Ten Pounds (I swear, at least that many)

Well, I just started an exercise routine called P90 (by Beachbody). It is supposed to last for 90 days, 6 days a week and you start out by taking a photo of yourself.

My God! I swear that's not the person in my mirror! How come I don't look that bad when I'm shaving?

I'm going to use this as the wallpaper to my home computer. That way, every time I sit down to use the computer I'll say to myself, "get up quick and work out, now!"

I'll spare you my stats, but I do still make the body fat percentage for the Army.

In the movie The Incredibles, Mr. Incredible works out after his first trip to the island. He lifts trains and such, just like my workout routine. After that he measures his waist, he's happy that it's down to 39" but when he goes to E to get his suit fixed she says, "My god you've gotten fat."

HEY! That's right about my waist size. I was always offended. Now after seeing these photos I'm saying to myself exactly what E said.

Serenity Review

SPOILER - SPOILER - SPOILER

I want to get this over with from the get go, DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE.

I went to the library and grabbed the TV series. The little props and I enjoyed it very much (I enjoyed it almost as much simply because they enjoyed it). So, when we ran out of episodes (too quickly) I picked up the movie. We decided that the movie might be a little too much for little prop eyes and they didn't watch it (I'm glad they didn't), but I did.

I am disappointed and happy.

I'll talk about the things I liked first.

It was actually Sci-Fi! I'm so glad the Western part fell behind the actual SF. The TV series was often TOO Western and they could very easily left the "boat" behind. The stories didn't need the science to make them work. The movie could not have worked if the science weren't involved (okay, it could have worked with magic, but ANYTHING could work if you just say it was magic). This is what defines SF and I am so glad they finally got that right.

As a writer I have to say, I'm glad they weren't afraid to kill some of the main characters. Yes that's right I'm glad they killed main characters. That isn't a bad thing in and of itself. I know that sometimes it just works. If you are too in love with the characters to kill them then they could stop being real in your story. You remember when MASH stopped letting the characters be real in the story, about the time Winchester came along. To me that also happened in Angel in the second season. They didn't let that happen too much in this movie and I'm glad.

I liked the Shepard's death. He shot down the ship, he managed to keep himself alive long enough to talk to Mal, he gave Mal good advice and then he died. He had a good death. I'm not happy that any further Firefly/Serenity things cannot have Ron Glass and his Shepard character, I'll miss him, but his was a good death.

I didn't like what they let the River character become (played by Summer Glau, which we all thought was funny, that River was played by Summer). She ended up being Buffy the Reaver slayer. What the heck was that? She was a weapon, okay, but a mental weapon. In the TV series she shot three people, but she did it with math.

I listened to Joss Whedon's comments for the big, River vs. the Reavers scene and he even said he didn't know why all his movies/TV series involve a super powered adolescent girl. I don't know why either, maybe you should get help (that's why I chose the photo I posted here: no River).

Two other minor problems about River, why did the reavers stop shooting during her big fight and couldn't you have used some different makeup to at least TRY to make Summer Glau look 17 still?

The song was gone. It was very charming to hear my six-year-old walk up the stairs to her room singing, "Take my love, take my land…" I missed the song.

Now comes the proverbial straw…

Wash's death SUCKED! Not because he died, and not just in how he died, but in everyone's reaction and especially in ZOE'S LACK OF REACTION!

That was wrong, wrong, wrong. I listened to Joss Whedon's commentary for that part too and he said that he had to fight Gina Torres (Zoë) to get her not to react. Hey Joss, she got it right!

I said the Western thing got on my nerves. I said that my three young daughters liked the show. What made the show good was the characters and how they worked with each other. I loved the fact that Zoë and Wash (Alan Tudyk) were married. I didn't realize it until the movie, but Zoë had actually taken his name. I love that.

I'm a sentimentalist and a romantic. I didn't want them to be lovers; I wanted them to be husband and wife. In the episode "War Stories" you got to see that taken to the extreme. I loved that. The bond between a husband and wife has got to be as strong or stronger than any other.

They completely lost that in the movie. Zoë doesn't EVER mourn Wash. Okay, she's tough. She was shook up. It made her move too close to the reavers and get cut. She stabbed one reaver kind of a lot. I expected at least that. It made sense, she was tough, she had been through the war and had seen many of her comrades die, but COME ON! She was more broken up when that nut job that used to be in their unit got himself shipped to them as a dead body and eventually did die than she did when her husband, her soul mate, her better half died.

Not only did he not get the chance to have an heroic death like Shepard Book, fighting to save everyone else, making the ultimate sacrifice, but now I have lost all respect for the Zoë character. How can you respect anyone who can't cry for their spouse's death?

That ruined the movie for me.

Oh yeah, and in the movie, the spaceships make noise in space. UGH!

Prop Future

I may update this as we go.

Things I think we will do or have in the next 100 years:
1. Looks like we will put a base on the moon.
2. Base on Mars
3. Surgically implant phone/web in our heads
4. Use hollowed out asteroids as space habitats (spabitats) in earth orbit
a. Turn one of Mars' moons into a spabitat
b. Use spabitats in the asteroid belt
c. Start building spabitats in Jupiter orbit
5. Space elevator
6. Virtual reality morass (I think virtual reality (video games) will slow down progress as people get too wrapped up in it and eventually it could destroy civilization because too many people will refuse to deal with reality).
7. Nanomeds – medical treatments will be performed by molecular robots that are programmed to do certain things (go into a cell and rewrite the DNA etc.)
8. Required genetic screening for all fetuses
9. Genetic manipulation (improvements) of humans
10. Cloning of human body parts in order to prolong life (at age 60 you get a whole new set of lungs, heart, liver etc.)
11. Find life on Europa
12. Faster than Light (FTL) Communication will allow contact aliens through some sort of string theory/quantum communication method that is completely separate from any electromagnetic detecting (the answer to the Fermi Paradox is, "they're on the other line"). We will exchange a lot of knowledge, but never come in contact.
13. Send out the first starship, which will be a generational starship built of a spabitat.

Things I think we will not do (and may never do):
1. Teleport (transporter = impossible)
2. Faster than light travel (impossible). No hyperspace, no warp speed, just plain old moving from here to there in real space/time.
3. Space battles will not occur or will only occur close to space habitats. The "shore batteries" that are used for defense against meteors will be too effective for shipboard weapons and the sensors of a large stationary object will far outstrip any ship. Ships will all be subject to "shore battery" from so far out that ships will be "covered" by shore at all times. Battles will be with infantry in space suits or inside space habitats.
4. Establish colonies ON any of the other moons.

New Prop-Time

I just started a new schedule at work. I am still trying to figure out my non-work schedule around it.

I'm now working 1500-2330 (3:00PM to 11:30PM). That means the little Props don't need daycare for the summer, hooray!

It also means that I start work four hours after the people who report to me and stay at work three and a half hours after the last one leaves. Well, I'm moving to a different department soon (hopefully) so they'll have to learn to live without me.

Pictures of a Retired Officer

Major John was very kind and took a few photos of me at my last National Guard drill. My unit gave me the Meritorious Service Medal (MSM) as a career award.

I also earned an Army Commendation Medal for my efforts during the Warfighter Exercise we attended in January of this year.

Major John also gave me the very generous gift of the uniform in the photo. Officers have to buy their own uniforms and although the theory is for an initial issue of a complete uniform change (like changing from BDUs to ACU) the officers are supposed to get an issue or a uniform allowance, they will field the ACUs to deploying units, then enlisted and then officers. I don't expect they would have gotten to me any time soon. MJ says now I have a complete set of uniforms (BDUs, DCUs, ACUs, Greens and Blues) for my "Mr. Incredible Room."

I was also given a pair of cigars by the one and only Illini5 of Salerno. He is known by many names, The Man from Salerno, Mayor Webb, Webbie and The DIS.

I am very grateful and now, as a soldier at least I will "just fade away."

I have been reading The Glorious Cause by Jeff Shaara. It is the story of the American Revolution and I am inspired. I must find some way to continue my service to my country. I'll keep you posted dear reader.