The Patent Dragon's Zone of Soul Retraction

In Today's Episode... Pandemonicum Symphony: Third Movement begins, as Rhagaan, and a rather unconventional ally, act on the information they've received. Meanwhile, Mystalorn prepares for the inevitable, gathering the might of its strongest...

Release Notes... Nine chapters to go, and counting...

Development News... This just in: TDD-612 REIGNFALL, Chapter 2 is finished, as of this morning. Chapter 3 is in initial development, with elements taking shape in "wetware" format (i.e. in my head!).

Elsewhat... A trip to the movies has been postponed, and not just 'cause the choice of screen isn't so good. Right now, it's raining, to be followed by snow, then more rain. I do want to see Battle: Los Angeles, so I'm gravitating towards a weekday early evening slot, possibly even Monday - a longer than usual work-day, a little shopping, a movie - mmmmm, sounds not bad at all.

Meanwhile, the aftermath of the Sendai earthquake continues - and I intentionally didn't use the word "fallout", as one of the Fukushima nuclear reactors continues to be in difficulty, with an explosion confirmed by news footage, and some leakage of radioactive material. Cue all kinds of knee-jerk "Chernobyl II" bullsh8, and the Greenies bleating on about the "inherent dangers of nuclear power" - even though Sky News has had several experts in the fields of nuclear power and civil engineering to call upon, and put the scare stories in a more sensible light. This is not Chernobyl, boys and girls, and nuclear reactors don't "just go bang".

In the mean-time, Gaddafi rubs his hands with glee as the world's attention is drawn away from Libya. That's the problem with the immediacy of "new media" - it's far too easy to get distracted, and forget. That is going to claim more lives than Fukushima I, and probably the whole earthquake/tsunami combination as a whole...

Planes are flying again, people are getting home, no aircraft have dropped out of the sky so far - looks like the volcano panic is subsiding. I hope.

A disappointment averted? If so, that would be two for two, and that's the kind of news that would be most welcome about now. Frustration levels are a bit elevated at present, probably because of all the pay and netbook troubles - guess I'm anticipating the next dose of misery.

Dammit. Come the next pay check, I shall be looking for a holiday destination of some kind - somewhere as remote as possible, perhaps even without net access. I'm feeling the urge to just get up and go, and sit in the sun on a rock by a river... if the "summer" will let me.

Oh, and if I actually get paid on time.

So much for what I was going to do (whatever that was)...

BB and SIL have a project of their own in mind, and lending a hand ate most of the afternoon. That probably means another late night for me, which may just be made easier by the mist that's rolling in as I write, obscuring just about everything I can see from my window. It therefore is not hitting "record-setting temperatures" yet again, making weather forecasters in this country liars.

Project News... A change of story order may be on the cards, for sake of story flow. The next two episodes - "Lockdown" and "Trial Of A Legend" - run side by side, with wholly separate casts of characters in different locations, BUT they could be posted in current or reverse order, with only the end of "TOAL" being affected. I could write both in a similar way to how they work in continuity, that is "side-by-side", but "Lockdown" is in a more writeable position right now than "TOAL"...

I could, of course, interweave the two stories, going from one to another by way of a "Meanwhile...", which would be a change from the way things go normally. Interesting - I'll have to look into that.

More news on that as and when things get moving. The final chapter of "Kings, Knights and Pawns" is due tomorrow, then I'm taking a week's "study leave" before the next story commences. Season 4 is drawing to a close, and MMVII is on the horizon...

...new background image, taken from an original, technically unfinished sketch image currently at my deviantART account. The character is actually Obsidian from my Danger Island setting - which may just be revisited in the near future.

...congrats about the Venus probe reaching its destination in good working order - but just what is this going to teach us about global warming on Earth? That it happens without car fumes and industry - or humans? If that's the case, why are we spending so much money and effort trying to convince people that we caused it, and that we can "fix" it? Wouldn't that effort be better spent trying to ensure humanity survives global warming - and the extinction-event level volcanic activity that may just be what's causing the ice caps to melt...?

Yes, we should be reducing our pollution output, and yes, we should be looking for alternatives to fossil fuels, but we should at least be honest about the "climate change" issue. It's our world, and we require the truth, not hippy spin.

In Today's Episodes: Darkhawk ponders the situation presented by the "asylum seeker" in the latest chapter of The Darkhawk Diaries. Meanwhile...

...Miami's CSIs have another mystery on their plates - just who is behind "The Red Bandit"? If there's an answer to be found, it will be found in The Secret Adventures of Mane-of-Night!

Last weekend's disruption to the posting schedule has caused another "double-post day" to come along, but that's no problem.

Creator's Commentary... "Yes, the Rush song, Red Barchetta was a considerable influence for the concept of 'The Red Bandit'. I admit it."

Meanwhile... All tests for H5N1 in the risk-area (which pretty much centres on my home town) have so far come back negative, and there is an ongoing stream of reports of dead birds in the area. So far, the panic hasn't emerged, although I hear one English supermarket chain is no longer stocking Scottish poultry or eggs, which is pretty frigging pathetic...

A Final Thought... How beneficial would it be for the environment for all these shitty celebrity magazines to be banned? How many trees die to produce this crap, and how much energy is wasted in producing and printing it all...? Hmmm - celebrity "news", or trees? Which would you prefer...?

If I had my way, I'd pulp the magazines, and the vast majority of the frigging celebrities.

Tonight's Sucky News Headlines...

...This just in - bird flu detected in dead swans, just down the coast from me.

- this was bound to happen sooner or later, but did it have to be so damn close to me? I'm not overly worried, but I don't think I'll be able to look at the swans on my exercise route the same way again.

Makes me glad I won't be travelling across the area every day to satisfy "Big Brother" Tony B.

...on the first day of his honeymoon, my brother got stung by a jellyfish, and ended up being treated in hospital.

- talk about the perfect way to start married life... not!

Right. Bed-time. I'd rather not be awake when the third of the traditional troubles that "come in threes" arrives - but if Monday's "complications" were the first of the three, you can sound the "all-clear".

Somehow, I doubt it.

Oh yeah - Gene Pitney died: does that count...?

And Finally... Didn't get much done today, so I guess I should be going to bed with a farnham...