The Patent Dragon's Zone of Soul Retraction

Mission 101 Update... SCORE! Done it!

96 - Watch the original version of The Prisoner in its entirety (17/17)

Pity the same can't be said for tonight's CSI New York - fell asleep AGAIN.

Anyway, back to The Prisoner, and boy did that finish with a huge "Huh?" The last few episodes go off on a bit of a tangent, compared to the fairly solid "mind-****" of the earlier part of the series, pretty much completely abandoning The Village for outside settings that always end up leading back to Portmerion in the end, and several times without the classic title sequence, complete with "That Dialogue Exchange". It's almost like watching a different series - or watching the two seasons of Space: 1999.

If I was counting this as a serious review, I'd say that the last few episodes drag the series as a whole down from being "mildly classic" to, say, "interesting, but not entirely enthralling". A 7/10, I'd say.

Meanwhile... I'm nearly done with the Brighthawk "interlude". If I can just complete the final sequence, I could start the week with a clear slate, and an opportunity for that writing break I'd had in mind before I started this "Episode"...

Okay, let's try and get this in BEFORE I start falling asleep.

For probably the first time this year, I'm giving serious thought to Mission 101 business. I will have a Task completed by the end of the month, and that will be Task 96

96 - Watch the original version of The Prisoner in its entirety (11/17)

as I'll be having a Prisoner "marathon" at the weekend. I know I'm starting to come to a point where Tasks are reaching their natural conclusions - April will see my AVENGERS movies Task

98 - See each of the "Avengers" cycle of movies on opening day! (Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), Captain America - The First Avenger (2011), Avengers (2012)) (3/4)

completed, come hell or high water (or day off!), and I've come to the conclusion that laser eye surgery isn't for me (Task 10), which means I now have an open task as the associated follow-up Task - actually undergoing said surgery - is now off the table (Task 11).

However, I may have an option to fill that slot, and score a sneaky completion - setting up a SECOND Mission, most likely to start at New Year! A good deal of my unstarted tasks will go into this "Mission II", and some of my current "Mission-long" Tasks will be repeated for the new project - I may have half my list already written, as a result!

Early days, though...

Development News... Today saw the almost-completion of Chapter 4 of the Traveller/Adventurers' Guild of Kraan crossover, and the (almost-)completion of a tricky, and wordy middle section. It's actually been worthwhile having the two "teams" sit down and chat, 'cause it's encouraged me to explore the existing story-material for these characters and their current location, and it's set in motion something that completely came out of nowhere - someone will be joining "the other team", and it won't be long until you, Dear Reader, get to find out who, and why...

Audio Development News... I have a new external microphone, and that combined with the dictation machine could be all I need to get the first audio-production underway. I have a pretty strong idea for a WORLDS COLLIDE teaser-trailer, and I've now confirmed that some existing sound-effects are on one of my external hard drives (and have subsequently been decanted onto the laptop). However, I have just seen my next pay-slip, and I'm giving serious thought to the much-mooted replacement "lappy". If it can run Skyrim, it's a winner.

Mission 101 News... Think I'll go for a big Prisoner push, and complete that task this month. That's doable.

Been working some more on ...Mane-of-Night: Dancers of Freeport, and the story is getting ever closer to its conclusion. I'm not 100% satisfied with this last chapter at present, but I have time to work on it, given that there's no immediate posting-date in mind.

Part of the problem is an increasingly-congested "Coming Soon" list, as this story is the first part of something larger - and that's what I'd been hoping to avoid.

Prisoner Watch... I'm continuing with

96 - Watch the original version of The Prisoner in its entirety (9/17)

and the halfway mark has just been passed! It's a bit frustrating that the episode order on this boxed set is out of whack - all of a sudden, Number 6 is "new in town" again, and "straining at the bit", after a string of episodes where he's been more canny, and "playing the game". It's not too big a problem, but still, it's there.

Meanwhile... I've not had much time to think about the whole Elfquest movie thing. I mean, are people really going to get confused by two movies for which "vaguely similar" barely seems to fit - I mean yes, there are elves in both, but any "quest" in The Hobbit pales into insignificance compared to the main story-line of Lord Of The Rings. LOTR already has an established world, set up by the three biggest movies of all time before Avatar came along, and both parts of The Hobbit are midway through production, whilst any EQ movie is a LOOOOOONG way from getting in front of any cameras...

Of course, the property is now out there for anyone to take on, and given the positive buzz about The Hobbit, Game Of Thrones and the like, someone might want to take a shot at bringing Cutter and tribe to the big screen to capitalise on that renewed upswell in fantasy fiction. Hey, get Guillermo del Toro to do it - Doug (Abe Sapien/The Faun) Jones for Lord Voll, and (dare I say it) Morena (my Number 1 pick for Mane-of-Night) Baccarin for Winnowill...!

ITEM! Feeling a bit better, as the exams draw to a close. Direct correlation? If I've been reducing my viral load by (quite coincidentally) sharing it around several hundred students, then yeah. Hopefully, I have shaken The Dreaded Bug...

ITEM! Surprise, surprise - there are plans to carve up my Friday, even after I booked tickets for War Horse...

ITEM! I could have Dancers of Freeport (that's Part One of Mane-of-Night and The Brave New World) completed by the end of the weekend, external hassle willing...

...that probably means I'm doomed to failure, you know.

Next Week... I wonder if I'll get a chance to make any more Mission 101 progress? I really need to refamiliarise myself with my List, and see what I can do to complete some more Tasks. I know I could finish watching The Prisoner, for a start (6 out of 17 episodes so far!), but I want to advance more creative plans as well.

Okay, better drop some drugs if I want to make anything of the weekend...

So, that's us three episodes into

96 - Watch the original version of The Prisoner in its entirety (3/17)

and very entertaining it was too - a pleasant change from the endless crap we seem to be getting right now. I may just go downstairs and watch some more, whilst sketching out some more of Mane-of-Night and The Brave New World which is trundling along at a decent pace. It is early days on this particular Secret Adventure, but things are already developing in unexpected ways - I have already introduced an entirely new plot-line, and I'm interested to see where it goes.

As far as work goes, Work Slot 1 is nearing half-distance, and is becoming less of a grind as the time goes on. We had our first "Rimmer" of the session - maybe not a fair description of someone calling it quits early, 'cause they didn't write "I AM A FISH" several hundred times, OR do a little dance, OR faint. Of course, they may have done the latter out of sight when they realised they had punted the exam...

I wouldn't want to be them.

"Slow and steady wins the race", so the saying goes. Well, let's see where that gets us...

Book Report... My latest attempt to complete Task 85 of my Mission 101 - "...make my own books" - continues! It's a gradual process, but I have avoided the pitfall that screwed things last time. There are still steps to foul up ahead, however.

Other Tasks... It's looking more and more as though Saturday is going to be a wash-out. The skies stay clear until Thursday, and then the heavens piss all over us again, right through Friday and Saturday. So long, Task 4...

Splendid.

Oh well, I'll just have to find some other Tasks to complete. My "complete unfinished craft projects" Task (Task 52) could be lined up for s *SCORE*, with a bit of effort, and I could always start watching The Prisoner for Task 96 if I have nothing else to do.

I'm feeling energised, with possibly no way to burn that energy off if Saturday falls through. Time to get busy.

Another month approaches its end, and let's be honest, I really haven't done much to make progress on my Mission 101. Some of the monthly Tasks are proceeding - cooking, dinner, buying books, walks, movies, in particular - but some are directly competing for my free time, such as writing and art. I know some tasks are already lining up for big progress in the coming months - another concert, two of the "Road To Avengers" movies are coming this summer, the whole "clear up my crap" thing - but there are still things that aren't seeing any progress, or have even been considered for starting. I don't even take my Mission journal to work with me any more...

I've started the year in not exactly the best frame of mind, although writing for the "REIGNFALL Push" has helped considerably in that respect. There's still stuff on the horizon I have no control over, and the biggest upheaval of my life - the biggest easy excuse anyone could hope for...

So, what do I do about it? Well, how about selecting ten genuinely achievable Tasks and really doing something about them, such as:

18 Renew passport - how hard can it be?
32 Buy commissioned art - deviantART is rife with people offering to do art...
44 Master some origami - I can do boxes - and I already have a damn book!
47 Refresh art skills - Grab myself an evening just to work on that, and we're done!
50 Create hangable art - See Task 47...
52 Complete existing craft projects - ...and another evening should sort this one out too!
84 Make paper - Needs a bit of research...
85 Make books - Just needs some binding research, methinks.
96 Watch the original Prisoner in its entirety - Just buy the damned box set!
99 Get myself an audience - Just keep working at Charloft, for starters!

I'd like to double my number of completed tasks by day 501, if at all possible - May 17th, I'm estimating. That sounds doable...