Hello My Imaginary Friends,
My wife and I are working hard on book 2 of The Gates of Westmeath, at work it’s report season, and between allergies and season change; I don’t have much time.
Soon it’ll also be roasting for Holiday Calendar season too. (Preorder yours before Friday)
So quick update, but the kids had a good Halloween and that makes me happy.
Hope you had a happy spooky season. Bring on the Holiday music!
Stay safe and be kind,
Éric
Hello Coffee Lovers!
Only one week left. Deadline for orders is NOVEMBER 5th!
They are whole bean, fresh roasted coffee which is a custom blend of Peruvian, Mexican, Guatemalan, and Sumatran beans.
Here are the options for this year:
This is a pre-order for our Holiday Calendars. All bags will include fresh roasted whole bean coffee from a variety of locations.
Flavours will be picked from our current selection and a few experimental flavours.
Deadline to order second wave November 5th – Orders will ship mid-November.
Each Holiday calendar will come packaged with a surprise.
*ALLERGY* If you have allergies please mention them in your order.
Thank you!
Éric
How This Works – Read Other Reviews
Hello Cinephiles,
Today we’re talking about the 1948 film Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein.
The story was definitely driven by the scenes they wanted to include in the movie. It was well set up and simple. Some of the build-up was slow and there were some awkward jokes, but overall pretty solid.
Score: 0.5
I’m not a big fan of Abbott, I find him bland, rude, and insulting. I know he’s the straight man, but I always end up feeling bad for Costello.
Costello’s physical comedy is spectacular.
The monster actors were fantastic and Glenn Strange is a great Frankenstein’s Monster. Although, I would have liked to see Karloff. Awesome mini cameo from Vincent Price at the end.
Score: 1
The wordplay is fantastic and the sound mixing is impressive.
Score: 1
The filming techniques were solid and I liked the cartoon transformation for Dracula.
The music was okay; a strange mixture of comedy and horror that could have been more exaggerated.
Score: 0.5
The movie is a classic for a reason, it’s funny and it’s a lot of fun. It is, however, much slower paced than I would have liked, and a few of the jokes seemed overdone.
Score: 0.5
Fun and exciting, a real treat for those that love older horror movies, but it does drag at times and isn’t one of my favourites. It’s worth a watch just for the fantastic faces that Costello makes.
My two year old’s review is, “Scary” followed by a shrug.
Final Score: 3.5 stars out of 5
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We offered to let our Dragon (now 5 years old, in Sr Kindergarten) have a day off from virtual school this week if she wanted to create a stop-motion movie.
She, of course, jumped at the chance. I think it was her favourite activity from last year.
So we did the entire project on Monday (October 25, 2021), from writing the script, storyboarding, making the props, recording the dialogue, sound effects, and soundtrack, taking the pictures, and stitching everything together to make a complete stop-motion movie. (Thank you to Éric for all the technical help!)
I’m so very proud of her. She worked very hard.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12
“What the hell did you two steal?” asked Flint. We were all looking out the window at the fleet of ships.
“Are they hailing us or just sitting there threateningly?” Diamond asked.
“The second,” answered Sphene. She looked scared and it made her look her age, young.
Diamond reached down to her belt and pressed a button on the holo-emitter. “Built into this is a jammer that causes Sun Speakers to not be able to see what’s going to happen. That’s how we got out and how we got away. I turned it off just before they showed up. Figured we were free.”
“We need to look at the data that I got,” I said and sat at the last place on the bridge. It was a basic computer console.
I loaded up the files and there was nothing in the folder about the replicators other than the basic specs. This tech would change the way the system worked. The great thing was that it was simple and easy to reproduce. “I’m not convinced this is worth an armada,” I said, glancing nervously out the front viewport. If any of those ships so much as sneezed, our atoms would be dispersed across the galaxy.
“What about this one?” Diamond pointed at the files marked, “Operation Black-Sun.”
I opened the file. I wasn’t sure how a two hundred year old file could help.
What was in that file seemed to be a simple memo from one of the Sun Speakers to the heads of the military. It detailed the discovery of a ship filled with people from a planet called Earth that came from outside our system. It was filled with advanced tech. I recognized names for everything from propulsion to weapons we currently use. The research facility had been in charge of reverse engineering all the tech.
Past the tech, there was a description of what the Sun Speaker called a False god. The people were escaping a society that had rejected materialism for the teaching of a Sun god. This god sounded a lot like ours but the Sun Speaker in the files described it as a rebel who would be massing a fleet to come with an army to collapse our sun and kill everyone.
The file continued with a series of recommendations. The first was rapid recruitment into Black-Sun, converting more than half the military, of that time, to Black-Sun control. The second was to set up research stations across the system to study and re-create the tech. The third was to introduce Project Black-Sun.
The project was meant to swell the numbers of recruits by recruiting them from birth. Black-Sun demanded the Galactic Government give them half of all children born to be genetically altered and trained as Black-Sun operatives.
“That’s sick!” growled Diamond and I couldn’t disagree with her.
In the past two hundred years, the people had been told that there was a physical condition called Toxic Radiation Syndrome caused by an alien asteroid that had brought with it a radiation that altered our DNA to make it much more likely to give birth to a stillborn child.
Because of TRS, all birthing parents had to be sedated and the only other people allowed in the room were the doctors and the priests of the Sun God.
This memo said that TRS was made up to create an army to fight a god.
Attached were the current statistics for the standing army of Black-Sun. It numbered almost as much as the entire system. It also wrote that with the deciphering of the replicator, the last pieces were ready for Black-Sun to preemptively attack the rebel god in a system called Sol, nearly three million light years away.
“We have to warn people,” said Onyx.
“Who? How?” I asked.
“Everyone and we need to get home,” Diamond said.
I scoffed, “You’d need an array of massively powerful transmitters and a hacker better than any I’ve ever heard of. And I have no idea how to warn the Sol system.”
Diamond smirked, “We have that and we can transmit this across the system, but we have to get home first. Do you have any bright ideas?” She looked at me and tapped her holo-emitter absentmindedly.
Smiling widely, I replied, “I do. But first, do you have anything explosive on board? Oh, and I’ll need your holo-emitter.”
They did and I had a plan. The holo-emitter and the Sun Speaker blocking tech was based off of what they’d found on the alien ship but altered in a very clever way. Whoever was the original Diamond Stars was brilliant.
I hooked the emitter into our shields and programmed it to show the illusion that we were one of the Black-Sun ships. I then did the calculations to jump us across the fleet to the other side.
The last part of my plan was trickier, but thankfully Diamond had stretched the truth when she had told us the ship had no weapons. It had a collection of older plasma bombs. They were bright and they made lots of messy radiation.
I programmed the bombs to explode and then took the controls of the ship as Flint and Diamond jettisoned them.
Alone on the bridge with Onyx and Sphene, I asked, “Did you know?”
“Know what?” Onyx sounded genuinely confused.
“Did you know about Project Black-Sun? You are a doctor.” I couldn’t keep the disgust out of my voice at the word doctor.
His brown eyes grew wide and he shook his head violently. “I had no idea. You have to be an initiate of the Sun Temple to become an obstetrician. I was all about emergency medicine.” Something about his panic made me believe him. Or maybe it was the relieved look on his sister’s face.
I took his hand and kissed it. “If we get out of this, I want to spend a long time in bed.”
“Okay…” Again he sounded confused.
“With you!” I exclaimed, smiling.
“Ew!” Sphene teased.
The bombs went off between us and the fleet at the same time as I activated our jump. When we dropped out of the jump, I activated our new disguise and hoped.
While you wait for the next chapter, check out the previous serial stories:
Want to learn more about what Sun Speakers are? Check out what the one in our solar system is up to.
In the distant future humanity has spread to the other planets in our solar system. These stories follow Hal (a prophet for a godlike entity that lives in the sun), and his friends, as they try to make the solar system a better place.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7
Hello my Imaginary friends,
I love Autumn! Halloween, cooler weather, PUMPKINS, and everything else that goes with this season. (Although this year I’m seriously missing the conventions and the parties.)
It’s a good thing I love this season because mentally and physically, it sucks. I’ve always thought it was stress that made this time of year hard, but I’m starting to realize it’s allergies and season changes.
Spring and Fall are the hardest on me. My hands ache, I feel anxious and weak. Then there’s my allergy symptoms which include fatigue, coughing, stuffy nose, nasal pressure, and trouble sleeping.
I’m seriously looking forward to snow. The snow covers the ground and freezes the allergens and reflects more light. Overall, when nights freeze and snow comes, I start feeling better. Until the melt anyway.
Book 2 of the Gates of Westmeath is cruising by. We’ve been writing since early October and have already finished the first third. I’m hoping we’ll be done the book by Christmas.
I’m impressed by how easy it has been to write this book. Hopefully that holds out for the next two thirds.
It’s hard sometimes, realizing the authors and creators who make things you love are human. Sometimes not very nice humans. I wrote about my disillusionment before.
So it was nice to get a reminder that there are good people in the world when I saw this facebook post:
Thank you Tamora Pierce for being an awesome person. If you haven’t read anything by her, I highly recommend all her books. We named our daughter after one of her characters.
Completely unrelated I have the most adorable cape:
Thank you for reading.
Stay safe and be kind,
Éric
How This Works – Read Other Reviews
Hello Cinephiles,
Today we’re talking about the 2021 special Muppets Haunted Mansion.
This was a love story to the beloved ride. The story is a bare bones outline of the ride with some touching moments in between.
Score: 0.5
The main characters are Gonzo and Pepe. I find Pepe extremely annoying, I’ve never been a fan of the womanizing characters. I understand why they used him for this story, though.
Gonzo goes through a good story arc and speaks to older fans and younger ones as well.
The rest of the muppets have nice cameos.
Score: 0.5
It was everything a good muppets movie should be. It had music, puns, and lots of jokes. I especially liked the shameless use of quotes from the ride.
Score: 1
It was a very well shot and designed film. The background details are designed for that cross-section of Haunted Mansion fans and Muppet fans. Down to muppet-a-fying the wallpaper.
The music is a lot of fun and I wish there had been more. I liked the spooky muppet show opening song version at the end.
Score: 1
Be warned that although this isn’t scary, it does have a lot of jump scares. The kids liked it, although the five year old found it too scary due to the jump scares.
It was nice and nostalgic for those of us that grew up with the muppets show and movies.
Score: 1
This is a wonderful mix of classic Muppet humour and nostalgia for the Haunted Mansion ride. The littles might dislike the jump scares, but overall it’s a lot of fun.
Final Score: 4 Stars out of 5.
The very first thing we did when we arrived in Disney World in January 2020 was go see Tinkerbell. Pegasus was so excited. Dragon was a little overwhelmed to be holding TInkerbell’s hand.
Ages of the kids: Dragon is 3 years 4 months, Pegasus is 7 months
I passed Greensleeves! I played it slower a few times (75%, 80%, 85%) before attempting it at full speed. I made a few mistakes (got two stars on two parts instead of three stars) but I passed it according to the app, so I’m really happy with my progress today.
I’ve started practicing my chords both without the capo and with, because there is a lot less space for my fingers when the capo is on, so I figure I should practice that.
I played my song. The first time through it is rough still. It’s like my brain forgets what the rhythm is supposed to be overnight. I recorded myself, and I’m actually pretty happy with it. I feel like my strumming is improving a lot, which is nice to see. I definitely notice the slow downs when I change chords, but I know my speed will improve with practice, so I’m not beating myself up over that.
Context for the song: In my book Crushing It, not yet submitted to a publisher, 14yo boy (A) wrote the lyrics for this song in half an hour as he was trying to make sense of his emotions towards his new friend (B). A then plays it for B to tell B that A likes B.
I figure it makes sense for the song to start off slow, because he’s figuring out what chords he likes for the song, and then it picks up in the second verse. The bridge is slow again, as is the last line (because mirroring).
I hope you like it! Drop me a comment!
I tried Greensleeves again today and passed. I’m very proud of myself. Then I moved on to the next lesson: Aloha. It is very fast. So I dropped down to practice mode and played it at 50%, 60%, and 70%. I’m pleased by my progress so far.
I practiced my chords, both with and without the capo, and then listened to yesterday’s recording to remind myself of the rhythm. I think that was a good idea because I didn’t fumble over it nearly as much as I did yesterday. I am very happy with how it sounded today.
I felt like a real musician!
Then I played Frère Jacques, just so I can play it with my daughter.
Yesterday afternoon, I played the soprano ukulele for over an hour! It was a lot of fun and my son enjoyed it. (Daughter was at her piano lesson.)
I played the Aloha song in practice mode at 70% and 80% speed. I didn’t make too many mistakes and was pretty happy with my progress.
I played Frère Jacques several times for my daughter to sing along with. The third line is causing her problems, but she’ll get better with practice.
Last, I played my song. I didn’t need to listen to the recording first, which was nice progress.
I still love it.
Forgot to write my post today. I did play. I completed Aloha! I was very proud. 3 stars across the board. My daughter applauded for me.
We sang Frère Jacques together. Her voice is getting better.
My song is going well. I need to work on my rhythm.
Today I worked on a new melody. It requires all four fingers on all but the top string and it is very fast. I practiced it at 50%, 60%, and 70% speeds today. I was pleased with my progress.
I practiced my chords and then played my song a bunch. I really need to focus on the rhythm. I keep changing it to match the rhythm of the words. It’s really hard to separate the two.
Then I played Frère Jacques. I also tried it with chords. That’s really hard to change between them. Practice will probably help.
I passed the lesson I was working on (2,2,3,3 stars). I’ll try it again tomorrow and see if I can get 3 stars across the board.
Then I brought my guitar up to the main level for the rest of my practice. I played my chords first and then my song.
I worked on my rhythm… With mild success. It’s ok. I have the time to work on it.
Then I played many many songs from my app. Too many. My fingers hurt a bit.
I hope I didn’t overdo it.
Update: it’s been 3.5 hours since I stopped playing and my fingertips are still a little numb. Definitely ukulele tomorrow.
