I tend to avoid resolutions that require a major change in my lifestyle (get in shape, be nicer to people) or that involve circumstances outside my control (get a job, buy a new car). So here are my (hopefully) obtainable New Year's resolutions for 2010...


1. Write, dammit. Self-explanatory. I want to finish at least two drafts of my books this year. And also make some progress on the DEFENDERS. I think I might actually be serious.

2. Read more. I read 18 books in 2009, I would like to double that for this year. Also want to get a nice chunk of my nearly 6k comic books read. I'm so far behind.

3. Clean out my car. There's always too much junk in my car. The problem is that if it's in the back seat and I can't see it, it has ceased to exist to me. So I need to clean it out and keep it cleaned out, because when I finally have enough of the p.o.s. and roll it into a river, it'll be a lot less litter in the water.

4. Print out the year's worth of photos I've got sitting in my hard drive. I'd much rather they were taking up space in a photo album than on my laptop. And speaking of the laptop...

5. Organize and clean up my computer files. Seriously, I can't find anything on this dang thing lately.

6. Be smarter with my money. Since I don't have much, I don't mean investing or anything fancy. I mean stop wasting it on crap I don't need and buy more sale stuff. And use more coupons. I love coupons.

7. Watch every episode of MST3k ever made, including the KTMA season. But excluding the "lost" episodes, because hey, I'm not a wizard.

8. Update my "100 Most Awesome Movies" list, because a lot of great stuff has come out since the first draft. Additions to include Iron Man, Pineapple Express, Star Trek and The Prestige.

9. Try to be a safer driver. I think I'm a good driver, better than a lot of the people in this dumbass state, but I've been pretty lucky a few times, too. I need to be more patient behind the wheel and pay better attention to my speed. But I can still yell and curse people, it's called venting.

10. Figure out what that smell is coming from my trash can bin every couple days, even when it's empty. Seriously, wtf?


Okay, I think that's pretty sufficient. The over/under on how many of these I'll actually pull off is currently at 4.0 in Vegas.

**Warning: There is some serious fan-girl shit about to go down in here...**


Note to Self: Never attend Thanksgiving dinner at John Lithgow's house.

Seriously, I think if I ever meet Lithgow in real life I might instinctively punch him in the face. I'm sure he'll understand.

So yeah, I finally got to see seasons 3 and 4 of my almost-favorite show ever, DEXTER. A piece of advice: do not watch two entire seasons of this show in less than 48 hours. I think I might need therapy now. I also think I might want to abduct Michael C. Hall and keep him in my basement. (Honestly, back when I only knew him from SIX FEET UNDER, I would never have called that one.)

You know, I love seeing Dexter all awkward while trying to be normal and fit in, and I love even more when he gets to be himself and is all wry and shit with his victims, and I love even more when the real Dexter starts to sneak out at inopportune times. But more than any of that I think what I love the most is when he just loses his shit and completely snaps, especially in season four when he takes down Lithgow with the belt and drags him into the kitchen, and in the finale when he smashes that dude's cell phone in front of the cops and gets arrested. And I realize it was just a fantasy but I love the scene in season three when he realizes Jimmy Smits has been fucking with him and he gets Hulk eyes and goes apeshit on his own office. I watched that scene about ten times.

That and when he pops out of the trunk and punches Masuka in the eye after they kidnap him for his bachelor party, I will NEVER get tired of that. If I could make a continuous video of that clip I would be sooooo happy.

Oh wait, I totally did that. ~~> [link]


That and the "I own you" Doakes headbutt are maybe my two favorite scenes.

I will admit I find that the dynamic between Dexter and Deb makes me a touch... uncomfortable... now that they're married in real life. It's just... weird.

Anyway, I rambled on enough. Just wanted to talk it out a little, and nobody I know in reality-world watches this show. At least not before I do.

That's all.

*Warning: This entry contains spoilers and mindless ramblings. Mostly the latter.*


I have finally FINALLY finished reading UNDER THE DOME. Damn but that was a long book.

Here are my thoughts...


A few years ago, I was in Reno, NV, for work with another employee and his wife, and over the weekend we noticed on the map that Yosemite is not really that far from Reno if you drive straight south. So we decided to make a day of it and set out around seven a.m. What we didn't take into account is that this route was straight through the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the middle of February. (Remember the Donner Party? They didn't take that into account either.) So we end up having to go around the long way because the majority of our planned route was closed for snow. It took us six hours to get to Yosemite, where we spent three hours and had to leave again right away because it was a Sunday and we had to be at work the next day. The drive home was even longer, we got lost with all the route closing and it ended up being over nine hours on the road back to Reno. I kept falling asleep and dreaming that I was back in my hotel room, only to wake up and find I was still in the f*cking van. That was probably the longest, most never-ending day of my life, but considering how awesome those three hours I got to spend in Yosemite were, it was totally worth it.

That's pretty much the way I feel about UNDER THE DOME.

This is the longest book Stephen King has ever written, and also the longest book I have ever read. I don't think I was fully prepared to read a thousand page book, quite honestly, but I stuck it out. It wasn't always a pleasant read, I admit that. When King wants you to despise a character, that hatred is instant and all encompassing. I never felt one instant of pathos or pity for Big Jim Rennie, or Junior (even with the tumor melting his brains), or any of the stupid cracker punks recruited into the police force, or even for the majority of the town that put Rennie in power to begin with. All I wanted was to see them get their comeuppance, and having to wait for that was actually very stressful at some points. Add in the claustrophobic elements of the book, and I had to take days at a time off from reading this thing because I couldn't take the anxiety. You know how some people will literally yell at movies? I yell at books. Sometimes. This time a lot.

(To be fair, I am a little overly susceptible to physically taking on the mood of a book. Which is why I will never read THE TOMMYKNOCKERS again. I read that two summers ago during a heat wave, which is when most of the book takes place, and the whole thing is like a fever dream. It wasn't so much that I didn't like it, I just remember it being a very sweaty book that gave me headaches.)

That all being said, I did like UNDER THE DOME. I think it might be King's best novel since his accident. It has all those 'Classic King' elements, the huge cast, the small town Maine setting, the increasingly awful string of horrific events, including killing off characters you really didn't want to see die. I don't think it's one of my top ten favorites, but it is a very good book and definitely worth what I went through to finish it. I loved all the chaos the Dome caused, the instant destruction it brought about just by snapping into existence, and how bat-shit everyone went so fast. The story begins and ends in what, six days? I totally buy that. And the climax, with the fire and all that? Holy shit, that was amazing. I had a feeling from the beginning that most of the characters in the book were gonna eat it by the ending but I had no idea.

I did get a little tired of Rennie and all his bullshit, and how unrepentantly evil some of the supporting cast was, and I could really have lived without the whole frame-up on Dale Barbara and how the town turned against him and all that, there's only so much of the bad guys getting their way that I can take. And I was a little disappointed in the "it was aliens" explanation for the Dome. I understand what King was going for and it worked, that's just how I feel about it.

I think my favorite parts were the scenes between Chef and Andy. I don't know why, I just enjoyed the insanity at work there, I guess. It was nuts and kind of funny and almost cute in a way.

So there are my thoughts on the book. I probably could have organized them a little better, but I was up until 3 a.m. finishing it and I'm very sleepy.

Now I just have to figure out how to fit the damn thing on the shelf...

Merry Christmas everybody!

That's all I got.

I love snow. This is the first real snow storm I've seen in years, the last one was in 2007 and I missed it by a week because I was out in Reno.

On the suck side, this is the first snow storm since I started driving and owning a car, so tomorrow I'll be using my shovel for the first time in over six years to dig my stupid car out. There's about 10" or so out there now and it's still snowing, I'm gonna have to take at least to aleve before bed tomorrow night.

So far I'm working all four days before Christmas, which is great. I've worked pretty much all but one or two days since the end of October, so things are going pretty okay. I fall asleep watching t.v. in the evenings a lot more than I used to and I still haven't finished UNDER THE DOME but I know I'll be able to pay my rent and bills at least through January, so that rocks pretty hard.

Spending the weekend indoors getting my office in a usable state again, it's going well, though very slowly. I have made a little progress, anyway... [link]

I should really pick out another movie to put in and get back to it, it's getting late already and half the junk I drug out of the room so I could work is covering my bed. It keeps me motivated to get the hell done.

Will have Christmas thoughts later in the week, and some end of the year/decade list action by New Years. That's all for now.

P.S. - I really like writing at my computer desk again, the laptop works here pretty well. Hopefully this will mean good things.