Aqua Regia

Whew, it's been quite some time since I've posted here.  Between getting back from Ireland, the Jewel Riders Archive celebrating its one-year anniversary, trying to keep up a somewhat-steady word count with the new novel, and trying to go through my collection and debox stuff and move DVDs into a trunk that holds 1000 in sleeves, I have literally had no time haha. Not to mention I'm starting the application process to try and find a new job, but eh.

Ireland was great, though.  Beautiful country, fabulous people, lots of beer and cider haha.  I'll try to get up a few pics when I finally get them all sorted.

On the flight back, though, I wrote up a short piece that I tried submitting to a small LGBT anthology, but it got turned down.  Oh well, I'll just leave it here until I can think of something to do with it.  Setting is ancient Ireland (Hibernia) around the time the great burial mounds of Knowth and Newgrange were built.  Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.  :)

( Read "Spirals In Stone" )

In other news, I finally read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and am firmly in the Scorbus camp ahaha.  I can't believe that the end craps all over it after pages and pages of romantic lines and subtext, but whatever.  That's what fanon is for.

Vertigo sucks.  I'm just going to put that out there.

Tuesday night on the Fifth of January, I went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens with my brother, who was in town for a visit.  I felt fine after the movie, and through breakfast the next morning.  However, around noon I started to feel a bit dizzy.  I sat down, hoping it would pass.  However, the dizziness only got worse, and soon after the room began to spin.  I tried laying down, closing my eyes, but to no avail.  A few hours went by like this until mid afternoon I decided to have my brother take me to the ER.

It pays to work at a hospital, because I got a room almost instantly, along with some oral meds that I later threw up.  They did some tests, and found out the cause of the vertigo was likely an ear stone (new word of the week: otolith!) messing up my balance.  The PA tried doing a head manipulation called the Epley maneuver, which is supposed to help, but she admitted she wasn't familiar with it, and I think it ended up causing me to throw up.  (Side note: so weird to be under the care of my coworkers!  My brother thought it was amusing how everyone from the docs to the janitorial staff was checking up on me!)

So I ended up with an IV, and some steller anti-nausea meds that helped me feel a bit better.  The ER could see no reason to admit me, though, so I had several days of feeling crazy at home.  (At one point my brother and I went to a great used bookstore.  Most of my purchases were from books at eye level, because looking too far up or down the aisles made me crazy dizzy).

It's been almost two weeks at this point, and with some Physical Therapy (who knew they could refer you to for PT for an ear problem?  I thought it was a joke at first!) I've begun my recovery.  Still, it was a crazy weird experience, and I'm hopeful it never happens again.  But since the Physical Therapist thought I had "hypovestibular function" in my right inner ear, it's possilbe it'll come back if I'm not careful.  Spending too much time on the computer was difficult if not impossilbe in the beginning, though that has somewhat improved.

So overall, a really shitty but interesting experience in retrospect.  But on the upside, I now know how to write a character with vertigo, I guess? XD

Almost by accident (fate?) I happened to walk into Target on Force Friday. And was forcibly reminded by a million displays that (if I wasn’t already aware from the news articles that seem to come out minute-by-minute) there is a new Star Wars movie coming out this December.

So I think I’m gonna party like it’s 1999. Because that was definitely the last time Star Wars was given such a huge push in our collective cultural consciousness. I remember seeing products for The Phantom Menace everywhere from Taco Bell to Pepsi cans (only a few years ago we unearthed the character-specific cans from Episode I at my parents’ house and finally got rid of them. Heh.)

I feel lucky to have come to the Star Wars franchise at a point in time where it had ebbed in popularity. I first saw Episode IV in the early 90s when my Mom bought it on VHS as a gag gift for my Dad. Well, suffice to say my brother and I were hooked from the moment the Star Destroyer came onscreen. This gag gift led to many years of renting (over and over again, as Mom is quick to remind us) The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi from our local Star Video.

The only thing at that time for Star Wars fans outside of dusty VHS copies was the excellent Timothy Zahn trilogy: Heir of the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command. (I actually only read those books all the way through a few years ago.)

Then came the now-reviled Special Editions, which really kicked off the modern era of Star Wars as a franchise, eventually birthing the Prequels, comic books from Dark Horse, tons of novels, and action figures galore.

Star Wars is pretty much knitted into the fabric of who I am as a person. I think it was really the first story that I fell in love with, and certainly the first story where I absolutely wanted to know what happened next.

Yet somehow, I never got deeply into the Star Wars EU, and truthfully, by the time Disney bought the franchise and decided to nuke the EU to make continuity less of a pain, I could totally understand their reasoning. Truthfully, I was actually kind of excited. Much like DC Comics and their New 52 reset, rebooting the Star Wars EU meant that I would finally have a good jump-in point to start enjoying Star Wars expanded universe material again.

And of course, I was tickled by the idea that the new material is now considered “canon.” Yes, there are things I wish they had kept like Shadows of the Empire and several of the Prequel-era stuff like the Jedi Apprentice children’s book series, but reading through the five books pictured above made me realize how great it was to read material that was informed by the Prequels, The Clone Wars series, Rebels, and even hints at the new trilogy. Little throwaway comments like the age of a beat-up old ship being “Clone Wars era” instantly helps you date things now. It adds a beautiful cohesiveness to the universe that simply wasn’t there before.



I’m trying to not let myself get completely swept away with Star Wars mania again this time around (unlike 1999, haha). But boy, is my inner kid practically quivering with excitement to find out what Luke, Leia, Han and all their friends have been up to for the last 30 years in a galaxy far, far away.

And after reading those books, I think it’s going to be a fun ride.

My apologies for being particularly absent recently. After three days sans computer, I now fully realize just how much I use/love it.

My poor computer got a root key/malware/bloatware/general ickiness, and none of my programs or applications could connect to the internet. I took it into a local repair shop, and $180 later, my baby appears to be back to good working order. I was seriously having flashbacks to all the terrible problems I used to have with my old laptop during pharmacy school. Burn forever, Gateway.

It couldn't have come at a worse time, however, as I was hoping to use my last few days off to work on the Jewel Riders website and really hammer down a few things.

Oh well. Forced non-computer time meant I got out of the house to see Mad Max: Fury Road finally, and it was awesome. I initially thought it wasn't going to really be my cup of tea, but it was really fun! I also had the chance to finally pull out my blu-ray of Akira and get around to watching a seminal anime classic (and one of the most gorgeously animated things I've ever seen to boot!)

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

 I have to admit, I never thought I would admit to unabashedly enjoying a Scooby Doo show.  Prior to now, my only experience with Scooby-Doo as a franchise was catching old episodes on my Grandparents' cable when I was sick as a kid and stayed home from school.

But Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated isn't just good for a Scooby Doo show.  It might be the best thing I've watched so far this year.  I can hear the cries of shock, I know.  You say, "But Ry, Scooby Doo is a weird 70s relic about mystery-solvin' teens and their hungry great dane - not good television."  And before finishing Mystery Incorporated, I would have agreed with you!  Such is the power of this show.

You see, for the first time in 40+ years, the characters actually have character.  Sure, Fred is all about traps, Shaggy and Scooby eat a lot, Daphne gets captured, and Velma is the genius who looses her glasses and says "Jinkies!".  But this go around, the creators were actually allowed to create interpersonal relationships and conflcts.  The show starts out with Shaggy and Velma dating, and progresses to add Fred and Daphne into the mix.  The interpersonal relationships between the characters are never static, and it always takes into account material from the preceeding episodes.  The gang are given parents for the first time, too, and live in a town called Crystal Cove that bills itself "The Most Haunted Place on Earth" and depends on monster tourism.  So when they unmask criminals who could be potential tourist draws, they really are "meddling kids!"  Genius.

This is without even mentioning all the delicious backstory. It starts with another group calling themselves Mystery Incorporated who disappeared in the caves beneath the town twenty years ago, and goes all the way back to ancient Mayan prophecy.  Every episode has a more or less self-contained mystery, but the writers deftly weave the central mystery in and out through most of the episodes.  Suffice to say the climax of S2 is epic and an incredible payoff.  I mean, Velma brings up string theory in the final few episodes.  How is that not amazing?

The show is full of hilarious sci-fi and horror references and great voice acting too.  Fred and Scooby are voiced by the one-of-a-kind Frank Welker, who is an animation voice-acting legend and has been portraying these characters for something like 40 years.  For the Monster High/Ever After High crowd, Kate Higgins (Frenkie Stein/Briar Beauty) voices the mayor in the second season, which was a fun treat.  Patrick Warburton turns in a great performance as the Sheriff.

So yeah, apparently I totally fell in love with a Scooby-Doo show.  I'm actually afraid to go and check out any of the other material produced for this franchise, though, because I know it won't be as good as what I've just finished.  And ye gods, I totally want to get a little bit of merchandise for my toy collection now. >_<

Gah, I haven't posted anything here since January 1st!  One of my yearly goals was to blog at least twice a month, and so far I'm doing kind of miserably at it. Heh.

January passed by in a super blur, but one highlight was going down to Southern California for my brother's birthday.  I got us tickets to see Wicked with some friends (first time for him, third time for me...XD).  The show was a Sunday evening, and I flew down the Thursday night before.  I had plans to get together with an old friend on Friday and take my brother to Disneyland on Saturday.  Well, you know what they say about the best-laid plans...after my plane landed Thursday night, I promptly got stomach flu. >_<  It was horrible, and I was up most of the night.  Thankfully, everything seemed to calm down by Friday night, so we made the decision around noon on Saturday to attempt Disneyland.  It was so crowded...and raining.  Raindrops became daggers to poke you in the eyes on outside rides.  Still, it was good to get out of the apartment and away from my illness for a few hours.  Wicked on Sunday was great; I think it was the same cast who I saw last May when they came through Sacramento.

After seeing that Netflix was possibly taking down My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, I burned through Season Four (and then ended up rewatching a bunch of other random episodes!).  S4 reminded me why I love that series.  Great character moments, more nods to bits of continuity, and the most kickass fight EVER in MLP anything.  I was worried a bit when Twilight became a princess at the end of S3, but the writers really handled how her character would deal with a life-changing event like that perfectly.  Also, I listened to the "Filli Vanilli" song for like a week straight.  Sooo good.  (Actually, the series has always had really strong music.)  I need to get my comics out and catch up with what's happening there now.

Writing-wise, I've been slowly poking away at Theodore and Tippetarius in Oz, my genderbent Wizard of Oz retelling.  While I'm enjoying it immensely, I'm still unsure of what to do with the final product.  It will need serious editing, and possible rewriting (with more of a plan and world guidelines/timeline in firm place) if I ever plan on publishing it.  I do want to eventually share it.  I may start by posting it online somewhere just to get feedback.

Speaking of writing, this is the year I want to launch my official author website and start publishing some flash fiction collections and short stories.  I've set a personal goal to put the first collection out by end of March/April.  However, I'm being hampered by not having settled on a pen name yet.  I've thought long and hard about whether or not to have a pen name, and eventually I decided that having a professional license attached to my real name was just too great a risk for using it on my books.  i've narrowed the surname field down to two or three possible finalists.  Maybe I can post a poll to see everyone's opinion?

Only one more year now until the big three zero next October. I will be expecting my fandom grandpa card to come in the mail about that point.

I spent my birthday at work this year, unfortunately (Plus overtime, argh!) Which is pretty much as lame as it sounds. My coworkers were nice and brought in some pies for my birthday though, which was really nice. Still, it's the first time in a few years that I didn't take my birthday off and go visit my brother or parents. While nothing could compare to seeing Sarah Brightman in concert like last year, it would have been nice to at least get out of town for a few days. As it was my parents and I kind of celebrated a few weeks ago when I was visiting them.

And they got me a Kindle Paperwhite! I definitely need to start utilizing it, because damn if I am not drowning in a sea of paperbacks. Every time I visit a Friends of the Library store, it is pretty much guaranteed I was walk about with $5-10 worth of books, which at the crazy-low prices stores like that sell for, is like five to eight books. So hopefully going forward, new stuff will be on the Paperwhite, while select series will get the hardcover treatment. I feel like I'm kind of over the mass market paperback. The type is too small (fandom grandpa card!), and they just don't hold up that well. It's actually kind of sad, because they used to be my preferred format due to the price, but Ebooks are generally cheaper anyway. My brother also sent along the third Ranma 1/2 Blu-Ray set! Those are really, really gorgeous sets. Viz did a fantastic job on the packaging for them.

Another November of NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow! I'm hoping to attend the kick-off party this year as well, because I totally enjoyed the write-ins last year. They were a great motivator to keep me on track. This year, I'm planning on taking my Genderbent Oz idea through the hellish November ritual. We'll see if I can win again this year!

I've been on a huge Transformers kick lately. It all started with finally finishing Transformers: Prime, the CG show that came out a few years ago now. The best way I can describe it is: this is what you thought you were watching as a kid when the 80s show came on. Great plotting, great characters (and a thankfully smaller and more varied cast that is differentiated enough to keep easy track of!), great production values! Afterward, I watched Season One of the 80s show on Netflix...and kind of had to stop there. It's like, all the cool ingredients are there, but they never really come together well. Without good character writing to drive the story...it's actually a little bit boring? All these transforming robots have made me want to go back and check out the mid-2000s "Unicron Trilogy" of shows, though, which were adapted anime series. And of course my beloved Beast Wars. :D

I've also been checking out some great anime lately through Crunchyroll.
--Chihayafuru was definitely a best-of-decade level title. I haven't enjoyed a series so much in a long, long time. Yes, it's ostensibly about an obscure Japanese poetry card game, but actually it's about the characters and their wonderful interactions. This series made me feel bubbly and effervescent every time I tuned in.
--Love Live! School Idol Project was a great deal of fun too, witch catchy choreographed musical numbers and fun characters that really wormed their way into your heart. The first season concerns a group of girls who become 'school idols' (singers) in order to bring prestige to their school and save it from closure. The second season follows them as they attempt to win an idol contest called (what else) "Love Live."
--Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun is a hilarious high school comedy (no really, it actually is funny unlike so many other 'comedy' anime) about a girl who discovers the boy she's crushing on is actually the author of a well-regarded shoujo manga. When she tries to confess, it comes out like she's asking for an autograph, and then she somehow ends up as his assistant. This show lives and dies by its comedy, and let me tell you it is gold. The facial expressions and general wackiness remind me of Ranma 1/2 or Ouran High School Host Club, two of my favorite anime comedies.
--Then there's Glasslip. Oh my goodness was this boring and obtuse. The only good this was the background art. This series was my biggest disappointment in aaages. Being from the people behind Tari Tari, I thought I would enjoy it...but ugggh. All I could think of during this series was Scuttle (from the Little Mermaid) saying "Nothing is HAAAAAAAAPENING." Stay away, friends.

Anyway, that's all for now. Better go to bed and get some sleep before blasting off with NaNo tomorrow!

I think I'm a weird Oz fan.  Just throwing that out there to start with.  For most people who like Oz, the love starts (and often ends) with the 1939 "Wizard of Oz" MGM musical.  And while I certainly enjoy that film, it's not what caught me and made me fall in love with the original American Fairy Tale.

It all started innocently enough.  After seeing "Wicked" a few months ago (such an awesome, awesome musical!), I picked up the book "Dorothy Must Die" from the library, interested in how the current trend of going back to classic stories and making everything gritty/grimdark would work on "the merry old land of Oz."  Arguably the poster child for Technicolor. And it really was a fun read - it re-imagines an Oz where Dorothy went back after her original visit and seized control of the Emerald City.  Another Kansas girl is brought to Oz by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked to try and take Dorothy and her cronies (Glinda, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion) down.  The book is the first of a trilogy, and it definitely had me interested in reading more!

But it was the little snippets of things in the book that AREN'T related to the movie that had me really interested.  The Good Witch of the North, Jellia Jamb, Mombi, Ozma.  It made me interested in going back to the original stories.  Especially stuff dealing with Ozma, a character that I discovered is central to Oz mythology, but hardly known in the wider sphere.

So I checked out The Marvelous Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz from the library.

Let's start with Marvelous Land.  Dorothy is noticeably absent from this sequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which was originally written as a follow-up due to the success of the 1902 Broadway musical.  The book follows the story of Tip, a young boy in servitude to the witch Mombi, who escapes with his pal Jack Pumpkinhead and the Sawhorse.  They hook up with the Scarecrow and Tin Man, go on lots of adventures...and in the end discover that Tip was actually Ozma, transformed into a boy by Mombi after the Wizard took over the Emerald City.  WUT.  Glinda transforms Tip back into Ozma, and she resumes her rule over Oz.

This might be the single thing I find most fascinating about Oz - the Tip/Ozma character.  There is so much possibility for interesting story there, but I don't think it's well-tapped even in the later Baum works.  Perhaps it's really only something a modern audience can look at with a more critical eye?

Ozma of Oz, despite being titled after the princess, is actually the story of Dorothy's return to the land of Oz (well, really, the land of Ev - one of Oz's neighbors).  It introduces some really neat characters into the mix: the head-switching Princess Langwidere, Tik-Tok (literature's first robot?), the Hungry Tiger, Billina the Chicken, the Nome King.  The group has to rescue the royal family of Ev from the Nome King, who has transformed them into adornments in his underground palace.  The book also introduces an interesting concept in the Magic Belt, a magical tool at least as powerful as the Silver Shoes.

Marvelous Land and Ozma were jointly adapted into the 1985 "sequel" to the Wizard of Oz called "Return to Oz."  It featured a young Fairuza Balk as Dorothy, and even has Ozma appear in the end!  I remember watching this movie many years ago and thinking it was really bizarre, but upon revisiting it after reading the books it's based on, I can say it's a delight to see Baum's world brought to life the way it's supposed to look.  It has really great 80s special effects.  The puppetry and animatronic characters are absolutely fantastic.

The last Oz thing I've been checking out lately are the new(ish) Marvel Comics adaptations.  Featuring adorable artwork by Skottie Young and featuring scripts that hew closer to the original source material, these have been delightful reading.  I just finished Wonderful Wizard and am getting ready to start Marvelous Land.  Definitely check your library for these!

Finally, what really gets me with Oz is the deep richness of the world.  There are tons of "official" Oz books by various sanctioned authors, and so many fan-created works one doesn't even know where to begin!  The Baum books are in the public domain at this point, which makes it nice for adaptations if one wants to do something with all the iconic characters.  I really want to write some Oz stuff now...I'm debating trying a genderbent version that blends the first three books (at least?) together.  It's really been rattling around in my head, and even if I don't write the full novel-length version I'd at least like to try a few short pieces.

So my next question...does anyone have any good Oz recommendations?

Catching up with the first eight episodes of season six, I've fallen in love with Winx Club all over again.  It's funny, I'll go through these periods where I don't think about the series at all and feel like it doesn't mean much to me anymore, but then I'll watch a few new episodes and everything "Blooms" Haha, I went there back to life again.
( Season Six spoilers below, obviously. )
I'm so curious where things will go from here.  Here's hoping Nick gets their act together and airs the rest of S6 soon.

Also, are we getting any Jakks dolls in the US for S6?  If not, I'm going to go bankrupt importing the Italian Bloomix designs.

And also, I may have just bought a few more of the old Giochi dolls.  I found a seller in the US who had several of them for a really good price and just couldn't stop myself. XD