Archive for June, 2009

Eagle-eyed Browncoats have noticed a new listing at Amazon: a third Firefly Companion book from Titan Books, due out next March. What will this one cover?

No idea. Titan hasn't released details yet, other than the official title ("Firefly: Still Flying – A Celebration of Joss Whedon’s Acclaimed TV Series") and that it will be the same format — full color, 160 pages –  as their previous Firefly and Serenity Companions.

And that means you should preorder it right away. Titan's series remains the single best companions to the 'verse that have been produced, with scripts, interviews with the cast and crew, production drawings, close ups of props, and never-before-seen-pictures, which was damn impressive considering how voraciously Browncoats hunted those out.

Although it does beg the question, what could it be about? The comics? The fans? "Can't Stop the Serenity"? The various books of essays? The licensed products from QMx? A look back? Firefly's influence on other shows? More stuff from the show that didn't fit into the previous books? Tell me it contains, say, the next three unproduced scripts in the series and I'll buy it right now.

More details as I get 'em, but be aware it's out there and coming.  And if you haven't seen Titan's Firefly: The Official Companion 1, Firefly: The Official Companion 2, or the Serenity Visual Companion, go get them immediately.

Tomorrow is Joss' birthday, and there's lots of ways to celebrate! Many of us will be gathering at various Can't Stop the Serenity events around the world (check here for the list and schedule), some of us will be holding quiet ceremonies in front of our home Joss shrines, and some of us can boost the economy in his name. Which is now easier, because TFAW.com is holding a Joss' Birthday Sale!

This means you'll save 30% off cool stuff like Buffy Season 8, Serenity apparel, Angel variants, and even Joss' runs on Astonishing X-Men and Runaways. This is the perfect time for you to proclaim your allegiance to all things Whedon and complete your collection. Feels more like your birthday, doesn't it?

Our Happy Birthday Joss Whedon Sale starts now and ends at 11:59 p.m. on June 23, 2009, so make sure to visit our Joss Whedon Theme Page now to take advantage of some excellent deals. But be quick–your fellow Whedon fans are already there!

Because the Little Damn Heroes were so much fun, QMx is following them up with BSG versions: Little Frakkin' Colonials and Little Frakkin' Toasters. You're welcome.

They're six inches tall, hand-painted, cast in resin and limited to just 1,000 statues each. All are individually numbered, with a mirrored black stand.

Retail is $69.95 each, due to hit the shelves September 15. I'll let you know when pre-ordering is available, or you can get the jump on everyone else by signing up for the QMx newsletter.

This brilliant remix shows what happens when stalkery vampires come after a real girl. Or a real slayer, anyway.

Actually, that pretty well explains it.

Meatcards.com, a new startup offering business cards laser-etched onto strips of beef jerky — because, why not? — is offering sample cards to the first people to send decent live re-enactments of one of three classic Frank Frazetta paintings. But you have to be sincere.

The FIRST TEN NON-HALFASS PICTURES RECEIVED are winners. The definition of "non-halfass" is entirely, solely, and irrevocably up to the judges, and our judgment is final. And when we say "non-halfass", we mean it. You better have a halberd and a bikini and a RIGHTEOUS expression on your face if you're going for "Fire and Ice", and SOMEBODY better be in a bikini.

Since not everyone can hustle this up that quickly — it's a pain trying to rent a dinosaur during rush hour — they're also picking the five best entries submitted before 9 am next Monday, June 22.

Everything about this appeals to me, and I hope they display every entry they get. Go read the rules just to get an idea of the true, horrible scope of this contest. And if you enter, good luck!

I won the audience award! You like me! (sniff) You were shamed, guilted, and/or pressured into admitting you really like me!

Thanks, everyone, for voting for me.

Didn't get the judges' prize but I did get into the top ten, which means I also won entry into NYCMidnight's 2009 Creative Writing Contest, which starts this Friday night. Forget Father's Day, kids, daddy has to get his write on.

The new contest is a bit different, and only slightly less complicated than a March Madness betting chart made with a Spirograph. It works on a points system.

Once again I'll be in one of several writer groups. Starting this Friday night, we'll be given a location that must be featured, an item that must be included, and a specific genre, and we'll have 2 days to write a 1,000 word short story.

The judges will read them all, put them in order of preference and award points for our placement (#1 gets 25, #2 gets 22, etc). We get more locations, items, and genres and we write another 1,000 word story in July. Our points get added together, and the top 10 writers in each group move on to the next round.

We get reassigned to new groups, do it all over again in August, and the top ten from each group gets points but only five writers from each group move to the next round, based on the top three stories along with the next two highest point-total writers.

The last round is in September, all the writers left get a location, an object that must be in the story, and a genre. The judges choose the best 15, points get assigned, and then a variety of prizes get awarded to the top writers and the top points-holders. More details here.

Got all that? Me, neither. I plan to just write whenever they tell me to and see what happens. The prizes are decent, the challenge is a fun one, we get critiques on everything we write, and we get our own forum to tear each other apart help each other out.

I'll keep you posted, whether you like it or not, and continue posting my stories here. So, heads up.

It's about time for a new Weird Al song, and he doesn't disappoint. Already available at various online outlets like  iTunes and Rhapsody, but I favor Amazon since there's no DRM on it. You can also buy the video you just saw.

This drove me nuts trying to identify the specific Doors song he's doing, but it's actually one of the style parodies he does sometimes, aided by original Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek. Nicely done, sir. Just how much hootch did you have to suck down to get the mannerisms right?

Remember NYCMidnight's "Tweet Me a Story" contest? Hundreds of writers wrote stories of 140 characters or less, using a supplied word? And then some of the writers made it to the final round, and we all got the same word? And I posted my entries here?

One of them made the top 25, chosen by NYCMidnight's judges, and now the final vote begins. So I'm shamelessly asking for votes.

Head to http://www.nycmidnight.com/2009/tweet/tweet.htm and vote for me (if you feel my story deserves it, of course). You can also vote for any other of the entries you like. No registration required, no e-mail, nothing. Mine's the 4th one down:

"Aren't you skydiving?" "Yup." "You're calling from midair? That's sweet!" "I love you…" he said, watching the tear in the fabric spread. CREATED BY Chris Bridges

Voting ends Wednesday, 9pm EST. Thanks!

It begins…

Sure, the Blue Sun Jar is kinda cool. The solar panel on top stores energy all day so that the light inside pops on automatically and provides a soft, soothing, funky light all night, free.

And then you like having it around. "That Blue Sun thing is kinda cool," you find yourself saying. And then when more "Blue Sun" things come along, you assume they'll be kinda cool, too, and you buy them. And soon you notice that everything you're buying says "Blue Sun" on it somewhere, but it's still kinda cool because everything everyone else is buying says the same thing.

And then, one day, you notice other things that have "Blue Sun" on them somewhere. Like important contracts. Like business mergers. Like legislation. But it's OK, because those light were so cool.

Remember, this is where it began.

Because they are pretty cool.

I'm an automatic uploader. Can't help it. When I see that there's a new version available, I nab it without thinking, that's just how on-the-edge and kinda stupid I am.

And WordPress, the blogging software I use for my sites, is excellent in that regard. It wasn't terrible to upload before, just time-consuming, and ever since an automatic updater was developed it was ridiculously easy to keep those little version numbers current. Just hit the button, click OK a bunch of times, and you're golden.

This morning they launched v2.8. And I clicked. And suddenly the post editor fizzed out and just showed me little red lines where the timeless prose used to be. And I had a momentary freakout, because, as I said, all my sites are WP-driven.

Fortunately the support forums – which are now lighting up like an upgraded Christmas tree – supplied some suggestions. I deactivated all my plugins, manually deleted and uploaded \wp-admin and \wp-includes, and then reactivated everything one by one. (The Social Media page plugin is still broken, by the way) But judging from the other posts in the support forum, I may have gotten off lucky. So before you upgrade your own blogs, go skim the forum and make sure you're ready, and be sure to upgrade manually.

Or just wait for 2.8.0.1 or whatever to come along.