This probably needs a title.

It’s amazing and sad that major news sources are taking this long to say anything about the June 2nd death of fantasy author David Eddings.

I am having a terrible time focusing on work this morning. Part of that is because I’m trying to remember a book that I wanted; it was a reference book of some sort, yet I can’t seem to even remember what subject it was about. It’s been on my mind for three days – yet now that I’m putting together a book order, it’s completely slipped my mind and it’s driving me buggy.

I wonder if it’s possible to be senile at 30.

I’m also getting pulled off on tangents by snippets of Ken’s story (book two, which I’m back to calling Ken’s story as I’m not happy with the title Earth’s Tempest – sounds like a romance novel). I’ve been posting bitlets of dialogue to LJ now and then, but keep wanting to write more. I just…completely suck at having a work ethic right now, unless it involves actual deadline work that I get paid for. I really need to get out of that trap; that’s how many authors end up sinking themselves, by focusing only on the 9-5 and then saying “Oh, that story…I’ll work on it again tomorrow.” And of course tomorrow never comes.

Last distraction? Feeling gypped that I paid $4.99 to watch City of Ember On Demand. That…that was godawful. Even worse was that I kept thinking “Oh hey, that boy looks like Roman – oh. Oh, no, he doesn’t. Dear god, no, he really doesn’t. Boy? Boy, please close your mouth. Please. No one likes a mouth breather.”

It randomly struck me, as I was trying to figure out how to fit seven job descriptions of average length onto two bloody effin’ pages, that I’m very bad at knowing the difference between middle grade fiction and young adult fiction. I blame this on my own personal reading experiences growing up; I devoured books voraciously and never paid attention to their reading level, so they all blended together in my mind (especially since in my hometown library, there was basically an adult section, a children’s section, and a YA section that lumped YA and MG together). The age of the protagonist(s) is no longer an indicator, as you can have MG books with 18-year-old protagonists or YA books with 12-year-old protagonists. It’s mainly a matter of length, content, and maturity of storyline, I guess…but it’s still a blurred line that I think I often walk incorrectly.

Need to send out a few more queries today; I’ve been slacking, but to me, sending out just one query is a lot of work. I never understand people who can send out fifteen to fifty queries a day. It takes time to research an agent, custom-prepare your sample materials according to their guidelines, adjust your query letter to fit their style and requirements, and then obsessively triple-check everything to ensure you’ve added the right things and didn’t make any mistakes. If it takes me less than an hour to get a query packet together, I feel like I’ve half-assed the job.

Also need to finish revising the SB synopsis. Still waiting on initial “Yes, I’d like to see more / No thanks, not right for us” responses from several queries, as well as waiting for a response from the agent with the full.

The Magazine of Fantasy and Sci-Fi is currently accepting submissions. I may try my hand at short stories again. My inability to write them is an obstacle I really need to overcome.

Have almost completely lost interest in World of Warcraft, for a variety of reasons. Laptop keeps overheating and crashing while playing; chill mat doesn’t help much (I suspect there may be an abundance of cat hair in the internal fan, contributing to the crashes). Have no desire to level another class to 80; I have two 80s, and that’s more than enough. RP in-game has gotten entirely tedious, with OOC drama that I have no desire to deal with; since RP was the main reason (beyond a few dailies) that I logged on regularly and I’ve now found entirely spectacular non-WoW RP with a friend, I have little reason to pop into the game anymore.

Oh, btw…the majority of you have already heard, but yes, Hikaru and I are engaged. No date set yet. Happy birthday, love. He’s 24 today.

Oh, yeah. One other thing.

I passed my CPRW exam. I am now a Certified Professional Resume Writer.

That’s all.

Bleargh.

So I was bad this weekend. I didn’t write the Shadow’s Breath synopsis, but I did have a marvelous time going to Mitsuwa and Terminator: Salvation with Hikaru. The movie was a bit of a letdown, but I still had a great time; considering that I rarely get out of the house and really need to stop pulling the hermit act, the movie was more important than staying at home and writing what’s basically an overgrown plot summary.

…and I wasn’t wholly bad, since last night I did most of my work for today. So today I can take the free time to be good and write my synopsis, no matter how boring it is. Right? Right?

…well, as soon as the allergy pill kicks in and I can see…

Spock vs. Wolverine.

(Reposted from my LJ and edited for profanity and vulgarity.)

Star Trek: So. Effin’. AWESOME. There were a few things that spat in the face of canon, but it was executed well. The ending/explanation behind a central plot theme had a bit of deus ex machina and really felt like a gaping inconsistency, but it’s my only real complaint. The rest of the blatantly-defying-canon stuff was so entirely forgivable for the wonderful characterization, gripping action scenes, well-done dialogue & scripting, hilarious one-liners, and the fun game of “spot the canonical tribute” as they worked in SO many things that just make you go “squee!” in recognition. The opening scene made me cry; it was extremely powerful and well-done, although the rest of the movie did seem to lack impact in comparison just because they opened with something so strong. There were a couple of spots where the plot started to lose me just because it got so, “Oh, PLEASE, you’re kidding me,” too much glossed, too much rushed through…but it kept redeeming itself.

It’s definitely Star Trek for a new generation, though, designed to tell a story that will appeal to an audience that’s too new for the existing franchise. It reinvented itself with some details changed, and was as much Star Trek as it wasn’t Star Trek. Strict canon-lovers probably love it, hate it, decry it at every chance. I only have one thing to say.

Young Spock? Effin’ SEX.

Now. Wolverine.

Huge letdown. HUGE. The pacing was clunky, the scripting poorly done, the scenes badly timed, the CG godawful, and the physics of certain things so outlandish that you can’t accept it even in a comic book world, where disbelief suspends itself over the gorramn Tonga and waits for the inevitable long drop. There were fewer deviations from canon, but the crimes were more heinous; rather than feeling canon up in a back alley, this movie dragged it out into said alley and [you really don't want to know what was originally here; trust me].

The thing is, I don’t mind deviations from canon. I really don’t. What I mind is when they’re badly done. Star Trek deviated from canon terribly, but it was still a fun, enjoyable movie (albeit a “don’t think too hard about this or your head will explode from the logical fallacy” kind of movie). Wolverine deviated, but it didn’t make those deviations fun. They weren’t exciting, they weren’t interesting, they weren’t anything other than badly-performed attempts at being deep, angsty, profound, or all of the above. I like movies that make me think. I don’t like movies that obviously stage everything to try to force a moment of introspection, but just come off as false. Plus: plot holes, horrible inconsistencies, and far too many moments of “What the hell, why didn’t they/why isn’t there/where’s the mother effin’ ____________? This makes no sense/would never happen!”

The storytelling was just…so bad. Yes, the story was easy to follow, but you shouldn’t have to follow a good movie. A good movie catches you up and carries you along in a headlong rush, swept on the tide of every charged moment. This? This plodded along, leaving you to trudge in its wake, following behind only because there’s no other path to walk.

God, the dialogue was horrible, too. Wholly unbelievable, and there were so many instances of people saying unrealistic things only vaguely related to the topic at hand just to give someone a chance to fire off a pre-planned one-liner.

And Gambit. Oh, Remy…Taylor Kitsch did unspeakable things to you, and wasn’t even attractive while doing them. When I first saw you, I thought you were either Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka, or that freak from Clockwork Orange. I didn’t think you were Gambit. I didn’t believe you were Gambit, and you destroyed one of my favorite characters. I didn’t care about him at all, and movies like this don’t work if you don’t care about any of the characters.

Overall, the execution was just entirely flawed for this kind of story and this genre; it smacked of a director who doesn’t know how to tell an action story with heart, and thus just bludgeons the audience with transparent attempts at shallow on-screen character development. If not for a lot of sweaty Hugh Jackman, wet Hugh Jackman, shirtless Hugh Jackman, and naked Hugh Jackman, I think Hikaru and I would have walked out.