Tag: lists

In which I pretend things will happen

On By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy1 Comment

landing_todolistI actually want to start by talking about this picture; I found it, as I often do before writing a post, by idly Googling a phrase from the post to see what pops up.  At thumbnail size, I didn’t read “Skill” and “Whom,” I read “Kill” and “Maim,” which caused an immediate click, and now that I’ve seen the thing at full-size I’m just as confused as hell, because 1) weird and gross and 2) inaccurate in an oddly specific way, because I don’t know that I believe anyone who would put this together would ever use “whom” in the second column instead of “who.”  We’re going for middle school verisimilitude here, yes?  No middle schooler has ever said “whom,” ever.

Anyway.

My wife has the entire week off, and the two of us are devoting it to Getting Shit Done Around the House, meaning a fair number of not-huge projects and at least two that definitely count as huge– including finally finishing off a project that we started a very long time ago that is quite shamefully not finished yet.  We’re also planning on tearing out the disaster of a carpet in our bedroom, finally bowing to reality and crossing our fingers about the hardwood underneath.

This is the part where I pretend this might affect my posting schedule, as I haven’t missed a day in 2015 yet and I can imagine a world where I’m kept busy.  This is nonsense, of course, because if we get anything done then the posting can be “take pictures of the shit we wrecked/fixed/put in.”  What it is gonna screw up is the book-writin’ schedule, and tha’s not been going great anyway, so I expect to end the week even further behind than I am now, which is already Oh my god this will never get finished.

Still need to find a new job, too.

Wheeeeee Monday!

#TopTenTuesday: The Last 10 Books that Came Into My Possession

On By Luther M. SilerIn ReadingLeave a comment

Each week, The Broke and the Bookish holds Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly book blogging meme. This week, we’re talking about books that we’ve recently acquired–the last 10 books we acquired, of course. These are the last 10 I bought, in quick-and-dirty Gimp .png version:Untitled(Technically, I got a copy of The Sanctum of the Sphere in the same shipment that brought me The Mechanical, but that would be eleven books.)

Because Stealing Post Ideas from @Scalzi is Fun, a Ranking of My Creative/Artistic Abilities

On By Luther M. SilerIn Uncategorized7 Comments

85dcd5a9ddb373f37df1165b6910faefI had the feeling that John was enjoying himself while writing this post, and I’ve certainly enjoyed thinking about it from my end, so I’m blatantly stealing this one.  Note that I’ve added one category he doesn’t include, per suggestions from comments.   So: my self-perceived skill at various Creative Endeavors, ranked from best to worst:

  1. Writing.  I would hope this would be ranked high on the list, seeing as how I’ve spent most of the last two years working to make “Writer” my eventual day job and not just something I do when I’m not at my day job.  I write every single day, even if sometimes it’s not a lot, and of the various creative arts this is the one I work at the hardest.
  2. Editing.  As an educator I’ve done an awful lot of this as well, although I’ve never been paid for it, and while I’m not dumb enough to claim that I’m the only editor my work needs (everything other than blog posts goes through my wife before you see it, and she has been paid to edit before) I think I could make a living as an editor.
  3. Public Speaking.  The top three are pretty close together, actually, and for the most part public speaking actually is what I do for a living.  I’m comfortable in front of crowds (although I don’t much like microphones) and talking in front of a roomful of people is not even a thing that I notice I’m doing any longer.  I considered ranking this first and then didn’t because I’ve never really addressed a large group of people before.  Hundreds, certainly, but never anything larger than a high-three-figures crowd, at elast that I can remember at the moment.
  4. Video Editing/Directing.   Take “directing” with a grain of salt, but I’ve done way more video editing than most people have, and know my way around iMovie enough to know that I can easily handle small-scale video projects.  I’m not going to be looking for jobs in Hollywood anytime soon but I could probably capably edit commercials or shorter shows if I wanted to, and we actually shot a half-decent zombie movie with my students a few years ago.
  5. Cooking.  This could potentially be ranked at #4 except for the part where no one’s ever paid me to do it.  I’m well aware of my deficiencies as a chef, chief among them being that I can’t just walk into a kitchen and look around to see what’s there and come up with a meal yet.  But if you give me instructions and maybe a few minutes of backup here and there I can produce a variety of good meals without setting the house on fire.
  6. Acting.  We’re getting into the “not good at this” end of the scale, but every teacher has at least some minor chops as an actor.  You have to, especially at the younger ages, to do the job well.  Have I ever acted on stage?  No, not since fourth grade.  But I’m pretty sure if I did I wouldn’t be the worst one up there.  Not a high bar to clear, I’m aware.
  7. Singing.  I sing.  A lot.  But mostly when no one else is around.  I was always willing to grab the microphone during Rock Band parties back when that was a thing and I don’t remember people complaining.  But if I get outside my rather carefully defined vocal range things can get scary quickly.  That said, I have been complemented on my singing by people who did not have to bring it up and did not appear to be kidding, so at least occasionally I can do it passably well.
  8. Photography.  This is the last of the “I don’t suck at this” categories.  I can take a competent picture if I have a competent camera, and there are enough examples of my photography on this site for folks to tell me if I’m wrong.  But I’m not a photographer and I would never dare to say I was.
  9. Drawing/Painting.  Talentless.  I can sketch a quick diagram for a math lesson, but that’s going to to be about it.  The only 2D artform I have any talent in at all is desktop layout, and I don’t think that counts enough on its own to be a category.  I cannot draw and I haven’t tried to paint since high school.
  10. Playing Musical Instruments.  Ranked very low because I have tried to be good at this and still failed.  There are few things that I can say that about.  I would love to be able to play guitar or piano or ukulele.  I can do none of those things, and at this point I will almost certainly never be able to.
  11. Dancing.  I am fat, slow, uncoordinated, out of shape, old, and white.  So.  No.  Not only can I not dance, at this point in my life I refuse to even try.

What about you?  What are you best at on this list?  I’d kinda love for this to turn into a bit of a meme for a little while.

One good thing about music…

On By Luther M. SilerIn Music7 Comments

Perfect albums.  Don’t put them in order and stop listing when you have to stop and think about it.

Mine are after the jump.  Go.

Continue reading “One good thing about music…” →

Question of the day

On By Luther M. SilerIn Geek, movies25 Comments

Your five favorite movies.  Don’t think about it and don’t worry about putting them in order.  GO.  (Mine after the jump.) Continue reading “Question of the day” →

Awesome female characters: an addendum

On By Luther M. SilerIn Geek3 Comments

This was gonna get scheduled for later this afternoon, but the post I wanted to write this morning sort of fell apart in the writing, so I’ll do it now.  I totally forgot somebody yesterday:

Unknown11.  Helen Parr/Elastigirl (THE INCREDIBLES)

The Incredibles is one of my favorite movies, and the announcement that it’s finally, finally getting a sequel caused no end of glee around here.  I still can’t figure out how making it didn’t cause Marvel to sue the hell out of Pixar, who wasn’t owned by Disney yet in 2004, because it’s transparently a rip-off of the Fantastic Four, only they made the Human Torch a baby and brought in the Flash instead.  I mean, hell, their daughter combines invisibility and force fields as her powers.  Those two things do not naturally go together!  Give me a break, here!

Whatever; it’s the best Fantastic Four movie ever made, so I don’t care.  But this is supposed to be about Elastigirl.  She’s got the second-best moment in the movie.  For the first, oh, third to half of the film or so, she’s kind of portrayed as a wet rag, content to blend in and have a home life and just be quiet, and other than her desire to be rooted for once in their lives she’s kind of a naggy, boring sort of character.  She’s a soccer mom.  Soccer moms aren’t supposed to be interesting.

And then she discovers that Bob is off on an island somewhere, and she decides to go after him.  And her kids sneak on board the plane with her, and she finds them– just after deciding that maybe she needs to have that superhero costume on after all.

(Goes and looks)  Oh, hell, it’s on YouTube:

I love, love, love this moment.  She’s literally talking to her babysitter at the beginning of the clip.  Full Mom mode.  Then she notices the missiles, and bam.  The superhero in her takes over like it’s a goddamned second personality, and for the rest of the movie Helen Parr is a ninja.  You really have no idea what she’s all about until this point in the movie; you’ve seen her flirt with Bob for a few minutes at the very beginning of the movie and then next to nothing until now, when you suddenly figure out that not only is she really is the Mr. Fantastic of the family– she’s the smart one, too, and there is a ton of stuff that she’s better at than her husband.

I kinda wish the clip started about a minute earlier and ended about a minute later, after she’s explained to her kids exactly how they’re going to survive the mess they’ve found themselves in– because the integration of the “mom” personality into the “superhero” personality is really interesting– but god do I love this character.

And, yeah, second favorite moment.  The fifth through seventh seconds of this clip are my favorite moment in the movie:


(Also: I don’t remember who suggested Veronica Mars, but I totally should have included her, too.  I thought about Sarah Connor but I already had Ripley, and they struck me as real similar, so I just kept Ripley.  Also, Starbuck.)

Not quite a reblog

On By Luther M. SilerIn Reading1 Comment

This article from IO9, 21 Books that Changed Science Fiction and Fantasy Forever, is well worth a read.  Well enough that I’m recommending it here and not on Twitter, where no one will notice.  I’m not sure I agree with every single pick, but that’s what makes these fun.

I own Dhalgren.  Sooner or later, I will read it.

10 awesome fictional females

On By Luther M. SilerIn Uncategorized23 Comments

I think I’ve stolen this idea from someone, but I’ve been kicking it around in my head for over a month now and have completely lost where it came from.  Despite thinking about it for a month, I’m still pretty sure I’ve forgotten about someone.

This list is in no particular order.

1.  Leia Organa, STAR WARS18lr3b0ga56o5jpg

This will surprise no one, and shouldn’t.  And no, not because of the slave bikini.  Okay, maybe a little because of the slave bikini.  Honestly, the Leia of the later Star Wars books has always been more interesting to me than the Leia of the movies, because they move away from “Princess” Leia and more into “uber-competent intergalactic diplomat, badass Jedi grandmother Leia” who is way more interesting.  Rhundi from The Benevolence Chronicles is at least a little bit based on this later Leia, although Rhundi is less of a politician than Leia is.

92.  Ellen Ripley, ALIEN franchise

Also from the “should surprise no one” category, and in fact the first name I came up with when writing this.  Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley should have killed the idea that women can’t carry action films stone cold goddamned dead after Aliens.  She was even good in the bad Alien franchise movies.

Honorable mention here goes to Dana Barrett from Ghostbusters, which is actually my favorite movie with Sigourney Weaver in it, and Gwen DiMarco from Galaxy Quest, which is probably Weaver’s most underrated role.  But Ripley is easily her most iconic and her best role, and certainly her best character.

willow06013.  Buffy Summers and Willow Rosenberg, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

Yes, both of them; my blog post and I get to set the rules.  Truth be told I think I prefer Willow slightly to Buffy; the character has a more interesting arc over the course of the show (and the episode pictured in the picture here was at least a minor part of the evolution of that character arc) but they both belong together.  Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my favorite television series of all time, basically, right up there with M*A*S*H, and I miss the hell out of it.  I’ve never been able to get into the comics or the books, both of which are still coming out, at least partially because I hated Angel so much toward the end and I refuse to admit that anyone from that show is still alive.  But it wouldn’t take much to get me to read more about Buffy or Willow.

Zoe4.  Zoe Washburne, FIREFLY

Do you know what the definition of a hero is? Someone who gets other people killed. You can look it up later.

Why not, stick with the Whedonverse for number four.  I love all of the characters in Firefly, but Zoe was the glue that held the rest of the cast together, and I wish to hell she’d gotten her own TV series somehow.  Or a movie.  Or anything, really.  Where she brings Wash back from the dead with the sheer power of her own awesomeness, because I’m still pissed off that Wash is dead.  If I ever meet Joss Whedon I’m going to hug him and then punch him in the mouth and tell him that was for Wash, and then while his security guys are hauling me away and beating me up I’m going to try and kick him and tell him that was for Tara from Buffy.

Joss is a dick, is what I’m getting at here, but Zoe was an amazing character and I wish I’d had more chances to see more of her.

INVIRONMAN_29_CoverWoM5.  Pepper Potts, IRON MAN

Little-known fact: for most of the existence of the character, Pepper Potts and Tony Stark were not  an item.  In fact, over the 40-some-odd years since the character debuted (created by Stan Lee, by the way) she has spent almost all but the last seven or eight married to someone else.  Pepper was always interesting to me because she was immune to Tony’s bullshit; the womanizing aspects of the Stark character just bounced off of her.  Pepper was what kept Stark Industries moving when Tony was either off fighting bad guys or just being a drunken idiot, and when she finally got her own armor for a little while (I’m actually not sure if the Rescue persona is still a thing; I don’t think it really is) it felt like something the character had earned.  (Incidentally, random Iron Man note: they’re making a big deal about Thor becoming a woman and Captain America being a black guy; Iron Man has already been a woman and a black guy and he did both in the eighties.  So they’re making him an asshole instead.  Sigh.)

anzQONH6.  Monica Rambeau/Captain Marvel/Spectrum/Whatever (Marvel comics)

Monica Rambeau doesn’t get enough credit. Hell, Monica Rambeau can’t even keep a proper superhero name.  She’s been one of the umpteen Captains Marvel, she was… Photon, for a while, I think? and now she’s Spectrum.  Here’s what you need to know about her:  She has led the Avengers.  You know how they complain about there not being enough women and people of color in comic books and in comic book movies?  Monica Rambeau led the goddamn Avengers.  And not the cheap-ass West Coast or Great Lakes offshoot teams.  (I kid. I love the Whackos unreservedly.)  No, she was in charge of the honest-to-goodness Actual East Coast God Damn Avengers, and she should have had three movies by now.

Okay, choosing a panel from Nextwave was probably kinda disrespectful, but god I laughed like an asshole when I first read that comic.

VeGnt7.  Éowyn, THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

“I am no man.”

Understand something:  I have read The Lord of the Rings at least once a year since I was in second grade.  I have the inscription on the ring tattooed on my left leg.  I have bits of the book memorized.  And the one thing that the movies did not get to fuck up was Éowyn’s reveal in The Return of the King. I was terrified going in that they were going to give that scene to Arwen, since they’d made such a big deal of pumping up her role in the rest of the movies.  I would have burned down the goddamn theater.

Took down the Witch King.  By her damn self.  Badass.

Éowyn maybe should be higher on the list.

Arya_Stark_48.  Arya Stark, A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE

I’ve been rreeeaallll vocal about my unhappiness with the later A Song of Ice and Fire books, right? And I’m not happy with them.  Not at all.  ASoIaF has degenerated more severely than any other mega-series I can remember reading, and as a lifelong science fiction and fantasy fan I have read a lot of them.

Finding out what happens with Arya– and maybe, maybe Tyrion, although absolutely nothing remotely interesting happened with him in the last book– is one of the very few things still keeping me invested in this series.  It is entirely possible that when The Winds of Winter finally comes out in 2028 that I will just read the Arya chapters and then give the book to my wife.

Maisie Williams is pretty fucking awesome, too.

lyra_and_pantalaimon_by_febreizh-d2036249.  Lyra Silvertongue, HIS DARK MATERIALS

This is fan art, I think; I decided that since the His Dark materials movie series so seriously screwed up the books (unavoidable, unfortunately, if they wanted it to sell any tickets– and they still didn’t sell any tickets) I needed to find a picture of Lyra that wasn’t from the movie.  The interesting thing is I’m not sure how to talk about her other than to say that you need to read the Dark Materials books right now so that you can learn about Lyra and how awesome she is.  I love these books unreservedly; a snippet from the third one was actually read at my wedding, and I keep trying to come up with a way to make a good tattoo out of a compass, a knife, and a spyglass.

hermione_granger_2_by_gaietta25-d56vh6f10.  Hermione Granger, HARRY POTTER

Hermione was the best thing about the Harry Potter books.  Everyone knows that, right?

Okay, good.

Honorable Mentions:  Scarlett O’Hara (GONE WITH THE WIND), Katniss Everdeen (THE HUNGER GAMES,) Lady Polgara (THE BELGARIAD), She-Hulk (Marvel Comics), Barbara Gordon (DC Comics), Mara Jade Skywalker (STAR WARS), and no doubt any number of others I’m forgetting.