"It's quiet company. It's quiet company."

[greygirlbeast]

If I don't leave the house today – and I know that I won't – it will have been ten days since last I left the house. Doesn't help that it's cold as an Xtian's tit out there, currently 27˚F.

Yesterday, I wrote pages 11-15 (manuscript pages 19-26, 1,433 words) of Alabaster #4. Not leaving the house is great for productivity. Just fuck all for everything else. With luck, I can finish the issue today, but by tomorrow evening for certain.

If you haven't already, please preorder The Drowning Girl: A Memoir and Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart. Thank you.

Meanwhile, the auction for an ARC of The Drowning Girl: A Memoir continues. Two days, eight hours remaining. Also, Amazon.com claims to have 17 copies of Two Worlds And In Between in stock, even though it's supposedly sold out, and, previously, Amazon cancelled peoples' orders because they couldn't get the book, etc. No, I have no idea how this happened, but it makes me angry.

Last night, after dinner, I washed my hair. Yes, well. we take our excitement where we can get it.

I suppose I can mention SW:toR and making level 29 and getting my first Legacy level (though I've not yet unlocked Legacy by reaching #30, so it doesn't really make sense). Or that there was stupendously good RP. But I know that's lame nerd shit. Not like saying, hey, last night David Bowie and Cormac McCarthy came over and we dropped acid and played dominoes in the nude. Yeah, I might be a goddamn nerd, but I have perspective, okay?

I watched half a new documentary about pterosaurs. It was National Geographic, but I was disappointed to see that, these days, National Geographic documentaries are only somewhat better than those on the Discovery Channel. The CGI was, at best, so-so. You know, back in 1999 television did this brilliant, beautiful Walking With Dinosaurs thing, bringing Mesozoic beasties back to life with CGI. And it's all been downhill from there. More CGI, lower production values, lousier visuals. Sloppier science. Facts ever more dumbed down. Thirteen years, and we're still moving backwards.

I read "New information on the protosaurian reptile Macrocnemus fyuanensis Li et. al., from the Middle/Upper Triassic of Yunnan, China." I also read "Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man's Back" by Joe R. Lansdale (1986), sublime nuclear apocalypse.

And that was yesterday. Comment, if you dare.

Inside,
Aunt Beast

Comments

[trvolk.livejournal.com]

I noticed yesterday that Amazon claims to have 17 copies of Two Worlds and In Between still available in stock.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I noticed yesterday that Amazon claims to have 17 copies of Two Worlds and In Between still available in stock.

All I can say is that a lot of people got fucked over, and I only partially understand why.

[vulpine137.livejournal.com]

Question about the trailer, I know you're not wanting to run another Kickstarter, but can we just Paypal funds to you as a general donation ?

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I know you're not wanting to run another Kickstarter, but can we just Paypal funds to you as a general donation ?

That's a thought. I don't know. I just didn't want it to look like we were passing the hat around again. Maybe we'll put up a button tomorrow.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

I confess that House of Leaves, while it had some interesting concepts, just didn't do it for me. It's still waiting for me to finish it after I got bored with it (sad to say).

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I confess that House of Leaves, while it had some interesting concepts, just didn't do it for me. It's still waiting for me to finish it after I got bored with it (sad to say).

Wow.

That leaves (no pun intended) me rather speechless. It was certainly the most important work of dark fiction from the second half of the Twentieth Century. It actually, genuinely, transcended the traps of genre.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

What can I say? I'm pretty unconventional when it comes to what does it for me. (I also happen to despise Citizen Kane, which generally sends movie buffs into apoplectic fits).

I found myself all too often wondering why this book got so many accolades when fantasy and science fiction and horror had been exploring the exact same concepts for decades and all those genres get is dismissed. But somehow, because this was "literary" it was somehow so valuable and avant-garde and wonderful.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I found myself all too often wondering why this book got so many accolades when fantasy and science fiction and horror had been exploring the exact same concepts for decades and all those genres get is dismissed. But somehow, because this was "literary" it was somehow so valuable and avant-garde and wonderful.

It has nothing to do with House of Leaves being "literary" (and for that matter, all books are literary, as all books are literature).

The book received the accolades it did because no one in F/SF before or since had/has treated the concept even a tenth as thoroughly, in such depth, or so artfully.

[mithriltabby]

I suspect that back in 1999, Walking With Dinosaurs was a big-ticket production that required expensive, state-of-the-art CGI, and these days you can get something one tenth as good for one hundredth the price, so it suddenly becomes possible to have CGI in places that it wouldn’t have previously been affordable.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I suspect that back in 1999, Walking With Dinosaurs was a big-ticket production that required expensive, state-of-the-art CGI, and these days you can get something one tenth as good for one hundredth the price, so it suddenly becomes possible to have CGI in places that it wouldn’t have previously been affordable.

Undoubtedly, far more money and work was lavished on WWD (and one or two of its sequels weren't so bad). But the stuff we're seeing now is a pale ghost to those original effects, and to the science offered up in those shows, for that matter.

[aarontbc.livejournal.com]

And it's all been downhill from there. More CGI, lower production values, lousier visuals.

It's not just the imagery either, the animation on these things is terrible. No matter the species, they're all rendered as if they were retarded infant robots.

Thanks for the "Joey" clip yesterday. I always, always enjoy listening to the song.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

It's not just the imagery either, the animation on these things is terrible. No matter the species, they're all rendered as if they were retarded infant robots.

Exactly.

Thanks for the "Joey" clip yesterday.

You're welcome.

[xarx.livejournal.com]

I actually like hearing about the nerd stuff. I only just yesterday managed to tear myself away from Dead Island since getting it as an early gift the week before christmas.

By chance have you seen the Walking with Dinosaurs live show as well? Went with some friends and their five year two years ago and the animatronic life size dinosaurs were simply amazing. It was quite the experience.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

By chance have you seen the Walking with Dinosaurs live show as well?

Wanted to, but didn't have the opportunity.

[homewardangel.livejournal.com]

I give you credit for washing your hair yesterday. It was so balls out cold that I skipped happy naked shower time entirely.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

It was so balls out cold that I skipped happy naked shower time entirely.

An elaborate process of warming the cast-iron tub and the bathroom was involved. Took about an hour and a half to get it warm enough in there.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Curious: How has your comic script-writing experience this time compared with how it was with The Dreaming? What have been the noticeable differences?

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

The editor is brilliant and makes wonderful suggestions, but doesn't get in my way. Final decisions are mine. I am listened to. And my work is completely creator owned. Night and day.

[sovay]

Not like saying, hey, last night David Bowie and Cormac McCarthy came over and we dropped acid and played dominoes in the nude.

To be fair, that is a nerd apotheosis vouchsafed to few in this life.

I've had "Joey" in my head all day.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Then I have done a good thing in your head.

[missmonsta.livejournal.com]

My family back in Oz still have WWD on VHS (wow, acronyms...), and it often gets an outing on rainy days - it really hasn't aged at all (though perhaps it seems that way in comparison to the poorer offerings available at present). I remember that even though I could identify the difference between the CGI and the puppet/animatronic close-ups, the quality of the narration and the scope of the thing made it really easy to suspend disbelief and enjoy the documentary - a far cry from programs like ... agh, I don't know the name, the one where this David Attenborough/Bear Grylls hybrid pretends to go back in time and capture prehistoric animals, bringing them back to his zoo and thereby "saving" them from extinction. It was just depressing and shallow and sad.