The Patent Dragon's Zone of Soul Retraction

Ooops. Distinct lack of posts this week, after what's been a more consistent month, but what can you do?

ITEM! I'm onto Book "Five" - or more correctly Book Four, after a two-part Book Three of A Song Of Ice And Fire a.k.a. The Game Of Thrones books. Damn these are GOOD - no, make that EXCELLENT, as in the best reading experience I've had in YEARS. Hooray for my local bookshop , running a "Buy One, Get One Half price" promotion at present, 'cause it's saving me £5 a time when I get two volumes of the series. I just got Parts 1 and 2 for (the actual) Book Five, and I believe those purchases bring me up to speed.

Now, the TV series...

ITEM! By this time next week, Blockbuster Season will OFFICIALLY be underway, as CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER opens in the UK on Wednesday. I have an IMAX showing booked for Opening Day - the first of several this year, including GODZILLA and (if it's out in IMAX) GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY...

ITEM! Damn. Should've posted another video yesterday. I'm trying for 3 a week...

ITEM! I didn't mention it before, but AGENTS OF SHIELD is definitely on the up-turn with Friday's revelations - and it's going to get even better as Marvel Studios realise the show HAS to resonate with the movie and comic fans, or die in the attempt. The latter, I'm thinking, is hardly likely...

First, this:-



FINALLY... things are coming together with ...Stargazer Season IV: Nightmare Scenario - and that we can attribute to a pair of villagers who were fruitful and multiplied (and several villager zombies who got cured).

Elsewhat... Did some shopping. Ordered some stuff I've been meaning to get, and some imminent essentials. Spent one of my Christmas presents.

Bought Saints Row IV, half price on Steam. Now watching the download crawl by - gonna be a while... but instead of struggling to find something to watch in the meantime...

(Holy crap - is it Conference Championship weekend ALREADY??? Crazy...)

...I can carry on reading A Game Of Thrones. A fantastic read so far, and this is a book I've had for months, maybe year(s) (it was one of my Mission 101 "buy a book a month" books).

Two hours to go...

And About Time Too... Okay, that's most of Christmas ordered. A small mountain of books and DVDs should arrive by the end of next week...

Oh yeah, about next week... The changes in the exam schedules mean I'm buggered if I can find a sensible time to go and see The Hobbit. There are opportunities after the exams are over, but I would still like to see the movie as soon as possible after it opens - one plus is that I've read the book, so there aren't a whole lot of spoilers to tip-toe around.

Meanwhile... Bloody hell, is the heating getting the better of me...

ITEM! I'm going with that epilogue I mentioned yesterday for ...Mane-of-Night: Dancers of Freeport, as a way of expanding what happens outside of our heroine's experience. I don't have my "master blueprint" for the whole run-up to *SPOILER?* WORLDS COLLIDE *END_SPOILER?* yet - but I can't really blame any of that on my usual weekend hassle, 'cause there honestly wasn't that much. Just a few small jobs that needed dealt with, and were - I've just not fully readjusted to the concept of an unbuggered-up weekend yet.

ITEM! Have I just found the perfect item for one of my "props" for my Mission 101 Task 88

88 - Create usable stage/screen/cosplay props of three pieces of costume or equipment from my own projects

. The idea is to make a Mane-of-Night energy-whip bracelet THAT LIGHTS UP, but I have utterly failed to find a light source that can be easily switched on and off, ideally through leather, and I may just have found what I need...

ITEM! Oh, and during the same shopping "sprint", I ordered some more flash drives - I already have far more than I could possibly need, but dammit they keep getting smaller, and therefore more desireable...

ITEM! Chalk up another for Mission 101 Task 28 - add Paper Moon (1973) to the "classic movie a month" list!

ITEM! Get this - the book of War Horse (which I'm currently reading and enjoying) has sold more copies in the UK in the last two weeks than it had WORLDWIDE since it was published 25 YEARS AGO. Yay!

ITEM! Time to kick back before NEW CSI New York!

Story development continues for The Last Ride Of House Glitterthorn, with all the latest writings typed up, and set into some semblance of proper order. Pieces of the story are starting to emerge by themselves (or so it seems), and I should be able to make the deadline for completing this story in time for its festive posting schedule. Tomorrow is the posting day for the last part of TDD-704, leaving everything clear for the Christmas Special's completion.

Right now, however, I'm checking out the start of BBC Radio 4 Extra's production of Lovecraft's epic At The Mountains Of Madness. Thankfully, we're not enduring Antarctic weather at the moment - if anything, it's turning warmer. Write off any White Christmas this year...

Elsewhat... I'm thinking that Christmas shopping can be all but declared completed, at least online. Last-minute delivery options seem to have expired, and local outlets appear to have sold out of anything desireable. I am adding to my "Christmas stocking", however, and "perishable" presents are on my list for the end of the working week, at which time I will be getting some much anticipated time off over the festive period. I'm not entirely certain whether I should "push the boat out", stocks allowing...

My mother had a fall today, and broke her shoulder. That rather complicates things. A lot.

The contract is in for The New Work, which certainly looks like half-days after this incident. I've managed to make some headway on monthly tasks, and one more day-to-day one:

3 - Complete at least 100 worthwhile walks (at least one hour outdoors) a year (13/100, 0/100, 0/75) - today's racing around counts as TWO walks. DON'T try and argue the case.
9 - Cook dinner at least once a month (2/33) - fish and chips, ice-cream and chocolate sauce
29 - Buy a book a month from an actual bookshop (2/33) - The Light Fantastic

Development News... I got some good work done on Chapter 8 of TDD-605 "She Returns" this morning, which I'll be typing up later, hopefully. This story should be done soon, barring any complications, but subsequent writing may be delayed. Sorry, but that may just be the way of things.

Should've known it was a bad move to buy a brand new Moleskine for my Mission stuff...

In Today's Episode... And so we come to the penultimate chapter of "A Darkening Tide", and a particularly fearsome wave breaks over our heroine as the might of The Darkening answers her challenge...

Release Notes... Expect TDD-509: "A Crash Course In Betrayal" to start up within a week following the conclusion of "A Darkening Tide" - the latter follows on all but immediately from the former.

Development News... TDD-510 "Knight To King - Checkmate" advances, and should progress nicely now that events have reached such a crucial point. For some, the rest of the ride is distinctly downhill.

In the meantime, I think the prologue chapter for the next Mane-of-Night story (which actually won't feature our luxuriantly-tressed and glossy-booted heroine) will air in the TDD-509 - TDD-510 "intermission", and MoN-108 "A Spread Of Jacks And Queens" will follow TDD-510. After that, it's plain sailing to the finale of Darkhawk: Season Five...

Meanwhile... So, David Davies's resignation and by-election is "a stunt that's become a farce", eh, Mister Prime Minister? Yeah, you'd know all about farce, having doubled income tax for the people your party is supposed to represent, whilst accepting big bribes - oh sorry "donations" - from the rich and well-connected, arranging the "suicide" of those who cast doubt on the erasons behind your "foreign policy", paying off other parties so you can win your precious 42 day detention vote, bullshitting us that violent crime is down whilst teenagers' blood runs in the gutters - the Jane Longhurst Law... need I go on?

The best your lot can come up with, Mister Brown, is the "threat" that you'll not field a candidate, leaving the way clear for the ex-editor of a major "newspaper" to jump in a joke candidate to try and make a laughing stock of the whole by-election. Sorry, but democracy isn't your own personal plaything, which you can take home when the other boys and girls won't play the game your way.

The challenge is there, "Your Majesty" - now be a man and answer it. If David Davies is wrong, show us why - you owe it to the electorate you so plainly despise. You've been so quick to paint the man as "mad" and "unhinged", and none of your cronies can make any sense of what Davies has decided to do - but remember that it's Parliament that the rest of us, the voting public, see as the madhouse, and that decision clearly makes a heck of a lot of sense to a whole lot of "the great unwashed".

I shall continue observing this story until its conclusion, and beyond - anyone you thinks our freedoms are a laughing matter, namely the PM, needs a good kick in the teeth.

Arrived today... "Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow" and Phillip Pullman's "Once Upon A Time In The North". Still waiting on two DVDs...

Poo. Managed to leave home in just enough time to miss this month's comic delivery - guess I won't see that 'til Monday now...

Thank the gods I've not been doing anything serious or expensive this week, 'cause things haven't exactly gone to plan over the last seven days - don't get me started about the total waste of time involved in booking my Iron Man ticket online.

Stuff-lets... Interesting how all the trailers on the 2-disk Golden Compass DVD feature the entire book-as-film, with glimpses of the actual climax of "Northern Lights". "Extended Edition" my ass...

- I don't buy more than one version of a DVD normally - I go for the two-disk - but when you get the chance to grab the two-disk Sky Captain and The World Of Tomorrow for £2.99, you go for it. Having already bought the one-disk for £7.99 a while back, that's the equivalent of £10.98 for the desired version - and that's still a bargain.

- Agh! I was struggling to find a book to buy on my shopping trip earlier in the week - no sign of the Planet Hulk collection, for a start - then just now, I remembered there was a new Phillip Pullman "gap-filler" from the world of His Dark Materials...

Typical. And my greater dragon still hasn't bonded.