April 2009 Archives

I seem to be devouring novels at an unbreakable speed lately, especially when they are so good the characters are appearing in my dreams. Weird, I know, but the character creation is so damn realistic, and just breathtakingly amazing that I apparently can’t get enough of them. I am seeing them here and there in my dreams, scenes from the novels, and then I turn away and move on.

The first book is Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows, Book 1) and introduces you to a white witch by the name of Rachel Morgan who is having a really bad week. Not only is her job going downhill due to her boss putting her on crappy runs (she’s a type of bounty hunter) but her love life pretty much sucks, too.

Throughout the series you’ll meet a ton of amazing characters. Ivy - a living vampire and Rachel’s roommate who’s slowly hunting her and wants to make her a scion, which Rachel is completely against. Jenks, a 4-inch pixie with a lot of spunk, guts and kids (54 kids!), and my favorite, Kisten, another living vampire who has close ties with Ivy and enjoys hunting Rachel a bit more enthusiastically.

You’ll find out all kinds of amazing things from this alternate reality saga, such as humans have an absolute disgust of tomatoes due to a plague. Magic is real, vampires are real, both living and dead, elves are extinct, pixies and faeries have wars over gardens and they aren’t big enough to matter and so much more. If you enjoy reading the Anita Blake saga but are one of the many who get tired of all the sex (come on people, Jean-Claude is a succubus for crying out loud, they feed of sex) then turn to Kim Harrison and the Hollows saga. You’ll enjoy Rachel’s crazy life, how every time she tries to do something right it goes wrong, the demons that plague her (literally) and so much more.

I’ve added the books to the Amazon widget and the link for the first book above will take you there. I have literally gone through all 7 books so fast I know that I’m going to have to read them again. And again. I simply enjoyed them that much. If I caught a leprechaun I’d wish to be able to write as well as Kim Harrison does. Enjoy!

Now that I’ve played around with TweetDeck a bit I have a love/hate relationship with it. Even though I tell it to remember me it tends to log me out of Facebook so that when I go to look at the latest tweets coming in it decides I can’t until I relogin. Fine, ok, no problem. I have to login to Facebook anyway to do things with the people who update their status messages anyway, so no big deal.

I don’t like the fact that it opens profiles inside itself and I wish it gave you the option to have them open in an IE (or default browser) window. Anyone know if there’s a way to do that? Did I miss it somewhere? Perhaps they’ll add this to their updates to make?

I turned off the sound it makes when I get new tweets because it was freaking the Little Lady out when she was sitting next to me with her iPod Touch and I kept getting tweets.I did find it quite amusing the way she’d jump or twitch every time one came in.

I don’t care for how it pops up to let me know I have tweets when I’m watching somethng full-screen. It doesn’t bother me but it makes me want to know what’s going on and I’m usually watching something with someone and it would drive them insane if I were to pause to see who tweeted what.

Other than the whole logging me out of FB randomly and the fact that I can’t really do anything other than read status updates and update my status with them it’s a pretty nice little program. Hope you enjoy it, too.

We were invited to go to a Wildflower Hike party today, lots of good food, company and music, plus a hike? Obviously we were all thrilled about going. There weren’t as many wildflowers as I was expecting, but it was still pretty to go on the hike. I enjoy being outside (you won’t find me outside often though) and I really enjoy being in the woods (despite the mosquitoes) and I love to go walking (irregardles of what Little Lady and Honey say). So I had a good time, a good walk, good food, excellent music (I’ve never heard a real live Mariachi band before) and now I’m home relaxing back on my cozy couch.

As you can see these are images of the waterfall that was the prize at the end of the hike. Most of the creek is quite dry so we were surprised that there was a decent waterfall (at least I thought it was going pretty good with the dry season we’ve had) and took some photos. I don’t get to see real waterfalls often so they tend to please me in terms that relate to being a water sign (Pisces) and I find them quite relaxing. I think one thing I would really love to have someday is a pond with a waterfall (man-made if I can’t have a real one) that I can sit out by and simply enjoy the burbling sounds.

Got some great waterfall shots? Comment, let me and others know! Later.

When I saw that TweetDeck could update me on the status messages I get from Facebook I felt like.. wow, kill two birds with one application! So I downloaded it and I’m playing around with it. So far I like how I can customize what it can show me. Although I thought I read somewhere that I could put a user on a type of ‘snooze’ setting if they were over-tweeting but I don’t see that. Perhaps I’m supposed to just filter them out?

I started using Twitter again to find other bloggers that I wanted to read, to find out what bloggers they read to see if I’d be interested in them and so forth. So far I’ve found a lot of new blogs that I like to check out and read. I don’t link to them all here but you’ll see them now and again when I do a ‘follow me’ post.

I haven’t had the application for long so I won’t give a detailed account of what I think of it just yet. I like the fact that I don’t have to be logged into FB all the time. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it but I don’t really care for Facebook. I feel like a sheep there. You can’t decorate your Facebook account like you can with Myspace. I guess I would like it better if I could.

Ok, so I just learned how to use the Filter feature on TweetDeck and that means I can ‘snooze’ a user. Can I do that to more than one at a time? I’ll try it later. There’s someone that I follow a couple of days in a row they were tweeting anywhere from 4 to 15 times consecutively. It’s a bit much. I like Twitter to update me on what’s going on with people I read but I don’t need to know every little detail.

No, really. I don’t need to know every single thing that is happening to you. That’s what your blog is for. Or it should be anyway. More on TweetDeck in a week - I’ll let you know if it ends up being helpful or annoying and why. Later.

For those of you who like the same shows I do, In Plain Sight is coming back to USA Networks on Sunday (the 19th). Another favorite, Burn Notice, returns this summer. I can’t wait.

Eureka over at SciFi (or SyFy?) continually gets moved so who knows when it is starting up. Stargate: Universe (SGU) will be featuring our favorite characters from SG1. I can’t wait for that to start. Make sure you keep an eye open for the Dr. Who specials and I haven’t heard anything regarding Torchwood recently.

I’m wondering when Private Practice is going to continue their story and quit with the reruns. Other than that, we are all caught up on our shows. There’s a new episode of Bones on Hulu. I’m still waiting for the last episode of Shikabane Hime Kuro to be subbed in english. There should be a new Naruto Shippuden today, which they are also updating each week on Hulu.

Honey and I are caught up on Heroes but behind on Smallville. I blame him. And WoW. Yep, I know. WoW.

I need some new books to read. I can’t wait for MaryJanice Davidson’s next Undead book to come out, but that’s awhile, along with Laurell K. Hamilton’s next two (one for each series) and I can’t find the two books by Holly Lisle that I bought anywhere at all. I have looked. They are missing. I think the book faeries borrowed them.

Other than that, nothing much is going on around here. Enjoy the shows and let me know if any good books. Later.

So after making the butterfly wallpaper for myself I decided to make a wallpaper with a dragon for my Honey. He’s strange and has his resolution set to 1280x768. He says that it is the ultimate wide resolution for playing his games and it works best for him. Although I had to go find out what his resolution was in order to make his wallpaper. He didn’t know what it was, but then again neither did Little Lady when I made hers. I used brushes I found at Brusheezy, cloud renderings and gradients in order to make this wallpaper.

For some reason the Little Lady is obsessed with Los Angeles and until I told her I’d include the night shot I used previous (but this is a different one) in a wallpaper for her she didn’t want me to make her one. With all the lights you can’t see stars in the LA night sky, so I added some. Then she wanted a butterfly, too and wanted it to be purple. The butterfly is also from the Butterfly Garden brush set at Aethereality and the StarScape is the same one from what I used in my wallpaper. I used a gradient to make LA and some of the stars colorful. Her resolution is weird, too - 1280x960.

Do you enjoy making wallpapers or other types of graphics? Do you follow tutorials to make them or do you just play around until you find something you like? Later.

Here you can see the wallpaper I’ve had on my desktop for about two or three days now. I had tried out quite a few before I settled on this one and then I didn’t really feel attracted to it. It was the butterfly. I just didn’t like it. I’m sure it was made by the artist on their own and it is nicely made but it didn’t appeal to me. I’m picky, I guess. So I told the Little Lady that I was going to make one just like it but better. And I did. WIth brushes. If you like this wallpaper, feel free to use it, you can get it here or you can go to Desktop Nexus and get it there, where they’ll even optimize it to your desktop settings. (Pretty cool, eh?)

Here is the one that I made using the Butterfly Garden brush from Aethereality.Net and StarScape brushes that I probably found at Brusheezy and don’t recall who the artist is. Here’s a note to people who make brushes, vectors, etc: Always include the author name in the name of the creation. When I choose an Aethereality brush I know it came from there. There are a few other brushes by others that include their name in the title, but it’s so much easier if everyone does it.

Anyway, this is my creation based on someone else’s idea. I know, horrible. I liked the one on top but it just didn’t appeal to me as much. I created mine in about 6 layers, 3 brushes, 2 gradients, 1 layer of rendered clouds and 1 text layer saying I made it and where the brushes came from. It’s set at 1200x800 for my monitor and you can use it as well if you want, just right click and save as background after opening up the larger image.

If you aren’t interested in what I’ve made or what I based it on, check out Desktop Nexus, they have a ton of amazing wallpapers uploaded by all kinds of designers. Took me hours to find something I liked, though, but I’m picky. Later.

Since it seems that one show ends before another show starts (ones that I watch by myself that is) it seems that I’m always running out of shows to watch. I’m very picky and it’s hard to find something that I actually enjoy watching. I dislike stupid comedy. I was never a fan of Friends. I stopped watching Soap Operas. I don’t like all the CSI shows (I’m a fan of Vegas though I don’t watch it anymore). I also don’t watch anything that I can’t get online. So I haven’t been able to watch shows like CSI, Numbers and some others that I used to watch. I hate commercials and I’d rather watch them online than on tv at all costs.

So I remember my surrogate dad mentioned that he was always watching this show called “Chuck”. I remembered seeing it coming out but I never got to watch any of the episodes because there was something else on the time it was on. I can’t remember what show was on at the same time, but otherwise I’d have checked it out. This is another reason I like watching shows online, I can watch them whenever I want (unless they have a limited time).

I find this show quite funny and I can almost see this happening to someone. I’m still wondering if Bryce was actually a traitor or if he was trying to protect the computer from someone else, etc. I don’t want any spoilers as I’ve only seen the first four episodes of season one. They have them over at the WB (who has more commercials than other sites when it comes to online viewing, but they are still only seconds compared to minutes long). Just Google “Chuck WB” and you’ll find the full episodes list right away. I was watching them on sites overseas before I found them there. Then Hulu starts showing them starting with episode 9 in season one. I know there is also a season two. But I have to watch season one so I can be completely caught up first.

The show is funny and it’s also a bit unpredictable. I actually find it a little refreshing. I’m not trying to figure out anything about what’s going on, just enjoying all the crap that is happening to poor Chuck. I feel bad that he can’t tell his sister or his best friend what’s going on because it would endanger their lives if they knew. I’m actually shocked that no one has tried to kidnap them yet, but then they are keeping it pretty well wrapped up about what’s happened to Chuck.

It also makes me wonder if something like the Intercept is possible. I think it would be pretty neat to be able to ‘program’ myself to remember all kinds of things (having to do with work related stuff would be great and all kinds of math so I don’t have to work at it). I mean, could you imagine how much easier things would be if all you had to do was look at something and you instantly knew what to do or how to handle it? Brains are just organic computers after all, it’s just a matter of time before we learn how to use them properly, right?

Remember the photo of the tree that I took a few weeks back? (Click here if you don’t) Well, through a tweet by Smashing Magazine I found a tutorial on how to turn photos into watercolor paintings. You tell me, did it turn out well? I think it turned out ok, not my best work, but then I’m not a painter by any means.

I also did the ‘create a star field’ tutorial that I received in email from Planet Photoshop. I added the clouds on my own using the render clouds on a new layer and then a gradient fill on another new layer. I screened the gradient over the clouds then merged visible the cloud and gradient layers. Then I changed the opacity to 30% and used a layer mask to remove some of the clouds. I also erased some of the stars because you can’t always see stars through nebula clouds. Here’s how it turned out:

I found MaryJanice Davidson by way of Laurell K. Hamilton. She did a short story in Cravings and I found it funny. I didn’t know that it wasn’t about the main character until I decided to go searching for the books that went with it. I have not read all the short stories (the in between novellas) of the Undead books but I do want to. I love having those details. It’s sort of like finding out secrets or something.

At first I found Betsy to be vain, annoying and irritating. Seriously, if I knew someone like her in real life I’d put her under the Shallow category and ignore her when possible. Somehow or another her charisma has pulled me in with all the things that keep happening to her (vampires trying to kill her, fiends trying to kill her, a cop threatening her and then using her as bait, being tricked into making someone her consort and king… there’s just so much) and with her overcoming these obstacles with little or no help is a huge thing. She’s still quite vain and shallow, but she knows that she is vain and shallow and tries to make up for it.

Betsy was having such a wonderful 30th birthday. She got laid off from work, her birthday party was cancelled due to weather problems and she got slammed into by a Pontiac Aztek when trying to ‘rescue’ her cat from the middle of the road. Now she’s Queen Betsy, or lovingly referred to as Elizabeth, the One, of all the vampire nation. If you can throw aside (and bury) her shallowness and overwhelming love of shoes, you just might enjoy the story.

It’s entertaining how she’s ‘screwing up’ and can’t keep her mouth shut around vampires who are much more powerful and older than she is, yet they find her refreshing and sometimes can’t understand her ways. Instead of killing every vampire that won’t be forced to obey, she tries to compromise. She wants everyone to get along with each other and find a way to work things out. Besty is constantly keeping her husband (and King) from killing those who disobey or are problematic.

Due to her newly undead powers her persuasion factor has gone up considerably and even if she’s not trying to win people over, they seem to end up agreeing with her, or at least stop arguing with her. And hey, her half-sister is the daughter of the devil, which makes things even more intriguing when you think about all the fun things they do together.

Also, who ever heard of a vampire able to survive holy water, wearing a cross, being staked through the heart and more? Well, Betsy is quite the special vampire queen and can take quite a beating without dying. So far anyway. Thanks for these books, MaryJanice. I adore the way you mix things up with the comedy and drama factors.

As if anyone didn’t know, Laurell K. Hamilton is one of my favorite authors. Yes, her books can end up being full of gory horror and make any person jealous of the main characters’ sex life, but the tale itself makes for interesting reading.

I’ve caught up on the Merry Gentry saga and it was definitely worth it. The sex was absolutely amazing, just thinking about the details makes one lick her lips, smile and maybe even drift off into a little fantasy of her own. The details of the story itself are amazing. Reading the Merry Gentry series truly takes you on an adventure into faerie and what the world might be like if we had more of a supernatural kick to things. Yes, more complicated - perhaps dangerous - but it would be interesting as well.

This saga follows Merry Gentry, who is in truth Meredith NicEssus, Princess of the Hands of Flesh and Blood, heir to the thrown of the Unseelie Court. After reading Swallowing Darkness I was actually shocked that there’s another book! The ending of the book was amazing, she got her ‘happily ever after’ but it was apparently not over yet. Divine Misdemeaners will be coming out October 2009 in Hardcover.

If you haven’t been reading the series, you’ll want to start out with A Kiss of Shadows (Meredith Gentry, Book 1). You can most likely find it at your local library as well, and if not, have them ship it from a branch location.

Merry turns out to be a lot tougher than anyone thought she’d be without being completely heartless. This is what I enjoyed when I read the series because it made her appear more real, more believable. The depth of the characters are extremely well done, from their little personal quirks to the changes they go through while living together and learning more than just how to survive the assasination attempts.

Also, if you enjoy the Anita Blake saga, the Merry Gentry saga will take you on an adventure just as exciting and mind-blowing with a twist or two. It certainly did with me.

Wow, two reviews in a row? I know, amazing!

With two episodes of Shikibane Hime: Kuro needing sub-titled I decided to look for another anime to watch while I waited (they still haven’t been and now I’m reading again). I remembered seeing trailers a few years back for KiddyGrade and it looked light yet interesting. It’s not as light as I thought. There’s quite a bit of exciting drama involved with the story line and that kicks in around episode 10.

KiddyGrade is about an organization called GOTT (Goverment Office of Trades and Tariffs) and their secret ES agents that police the galaxy. The first 10 episodes give you an insight to every day missions and activities with the characters and how things operate. They are Eclair and Lumiere and have special abilities along with looking cute and innocent. Would you really think that some cute little girl who looks like she could be your niece would be able to take over and command every electronic device and turn them against you? Only if you were evil and breaking the law, of course. Lumiere has the specialty of speaking with any form of electronics, although if she does too much it can tire her out.

Eclair is more of a hands-on type and will happily beat your evil butt into the ground with a smile on her face. The thing that really made me laugh was her always using the phrase “Ta-Da!” even when she had been de-matieralized and thought to be truly dead, she had been re-materialized and did her signature move. There’s a lot more to Eclair than she even knows when you start watching though. She doesn’t remember much of her past and has started running into people who tell her that they know her, that she has the same hair style even. There are many secrets that the GOTT is keeping from her as well. For good reasons that you’ll have to find out by watching it yourself. Run over to Hulu.com and check out the Animation and Cartoon section.