17578--Are You Responsible?

I say you are.  In fact, if you're reading this, I know you are.


I wanted to make a note to mark today, because after a couple of hundred plus posts since April of 2011 this is the first day that this site has received over a thousand views in a day.  I think I'd personally prefer that the short stories and chapter samplings from my novels were the major draw, but it's mix of those and my ramblings (I guess we can call them articles or just blog posts).  That's fine.  I'm not so picky as to turn away readers.

You probably know this already, but writers love readers.  Tell your friends.  My door's always open.

Yes, I attribute the responsibility, at least in part, to you for coming here to read.  I'm going to write whether people show up or not and I'm not forcing anyone to come look at it.  You chose to come here and love what you read (hey, it's my hypothetical--go with it) and then tell the world about it through retweets and shares and whatever, so the hundreds of thousands of visits that have taken place over the years and continue relentlessly around the clock (go with it) are on you.

Thanks for stopping in, even if it's just to see whether or not I've lost my mind yet.

I'm going to get back to plotting and scheming and stringing words together.

Don't live wanting.  Don't die wondering.

17569--Entertainment is for Enjoying

If you're a long-time comic book aficionado and you were watching ARROW this week(11/12/14 "Guilty"), then you likely caught a glimpse of the return of the classic boxing glove arrow, subject of long-running debate.  It gave me a laugh, but I'm still among those who think its unwieldy nature should prohibit its presence in the quiver.  Still, where better to use it than in a story featuring the boxing hero Ted "Wildcat" Grant?

 

Also good for some laughs was BIG HERO 6.  I haven't read the source material, but the film was fun.  The plot was simple enough to be predictable.  While that doesn't leave you with a lot of surprises, it's still entertaining.  And even though the hero, Jiro, could've and should've used a far more elegant and obvious solution to their supervillain problem (easily cutting down the run time by a third...which also means having to listen to my tactical analysis if you've gone to watch it with me, but if you know me, then you know that's the risk you take in dragging me to a superhero movie), it was still really entertaining.

 

Don't worry about it.  A lot of people finally started realizing that Indiana Jones serves little purpose in Raiders of the Lost Ark but it's still a very enjoyable film.  Like The Incredibles, you just don't want to go tugging at threads.

 

17562--This May Count as Monologuing

I'm going to be direct about this
and just tell you straight that I enjoyed The Incredibles tremendously.  It's a well-made piece of entertainment.  I know this isn't a bold, out-on-a-limb position.  Lots of people share it, after all.

If you're among those of us who are fans, you're probably glad they're finally working on a sequel.  Creator Brad Bird said he wasn't going to work on a second unless he could produce something worthy of the first, so that's cool to know he's concerned with quality.  He's built himself a decent track record of films, so I imagine he doesn't want to start fouling up the list with stinkers.

As much as I enjoyed it and still enjoy it, the film has still left me with a couple of nagging problems.  Believe it or not, they have nothing to do with the amazingly atypical body count for a Disney film.  That part I can live with.  Those characters knew they were getting into dangerous jobs when they signed on.

No, the first thing to bug me were the legal issues that drove the heroes underground.  First, Mr. Sansuite was attempting to commit suicide.  This is a serious matter and typically illegal.  No matter how much he wanted to end his life and blame Mr. Incredible for messing up his plan, he'd still have little legal traction in court and would more likely have ended up under protective observation.  The litigious train passengers would likewise have found themselves with little support as their hero would have been shielded by the Good Samaritan doctrine and any good lawyer should've been able to coherently argue that he wasn't responsible for their injuries.

Still, with all those tricky maneuvers having to take place to force the heroes out of action being allowed, we're still left with the next issue.  My follow-up is that I want to know why the super-villains dropped out of sight.  What happened to the major crime sprees that should've erupted to take advantage of the hero vacuum?  Where was the subsequent clamoring for the return of the heroes?  Fifteen years?  By that standard, it took virtually no time at all for people to beg for Hancock to get back off the sidelines.  Hancock!  And that was before he'd been able to redeem his public standing.

These things make me ponder.

Comments welcome, especially from Mr. Bird ;)

17557-- Winter is Coming

Don't tell me you're the only one who didn't know.

I know I see a lot of things ahead of others, but I usually try not to be the spoiler guy.  At this point, I felt it was safe to say something.

I'm not sure, but I think it may have been because of the changing weather.  I had a dream.  It was one of those vivid and unusual dreams that stood out...for whatever reasons dreams stand out.

Well, I suppose that the reasons already cited should make it clear enough: vivid and unusual.  This one had a lot to do with water.  I don't usually spend much of my waking time or dreamtime around water, so watery dreams tend to stand out.  There was nothing supernatural about it either.

The situation I seemed to find myself in was that of being a covert military intelligence operative.  I had infiltrated a Russian command with a partner and we were preparing to implement our exit strategy, which involved an underwater swim through icy water.  See?  There was a winter connection.  At least that's my speculation.  It was a dream.  Who knows?  For all I know, it could've had something to do with the dream I had about the Georgian spy eight months ago.

These things need to come with notes or some kind of map.  Half the time I feel like I'm tuning into the middle of a movie.  Must be what quantum leaping is like.

It's good pay for sleeping.  If it were less interesting, I'd probably fight it more.  Lord knows I probably don't need to spend any more time awake than I do already.  Still, it gives me time to write and connect those dots.