Mad About Blogging

Which is to say, nothing in particular.

In major news, I'm currently seven coffee drinks to go before I get the much-vaunted Starbucks 2005 journal. Nice to have a goal for the new year, yes?

Ah, I'm such a Starbucks-whore.

But seriously, at least I don't have to drink their disgusting peppermint-mocha coffee as I'm told I can substitute the toffeenut coffee drink instead. I mean, I tried the peppermint and it's awful: tantamount to brushing your teeth while having your morning coffee. (It cuts time during the morning rush but still...)

Likewise, I've finally brought my car to the Toyota casa to have the back window repaired. This is three months after the sixteen-wheeler truck first backed into it. Heh, procrastination is my middle name. Anyway, here's hoping my car will be out by Thursday afternoon as promised as I don't have any other way of getting around.

I also like to advance Dean's cause by linking to a positive review of his story that was included in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventeenth Annual Collection (edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, and Gavin J. Grant). Specifically, the SFSite reviewer gives a thumbs-up to non-American speculative writers and to Dean especially:

In this review's final example, the editors give nod to fantasy's non-Americans and to Philippine writer Dean Francis Alfar, whose "L'Aquilone du Estrellas" (The Kite of Stars) reads with the knowing sadness of Paulo Coehlo's The Alchemist and with the magic of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. Happily, Alfar's story of an obsessed woman trying to get the attention of the local astronomer is less convoluted and easy to follow than Marquez's story. At the same time, Alfar writes a more emotionally complicated story than Coehlo presents in his short novel.

On a fun and bloody note, did anyone catch the Happy Tree Friends Christmas special that was on MTV last Christmas eve? I first caught a hint of this in The Agony Column. Hehehe, the poor little bastards: I laughed my way into Christmas Day thanks to these furry critters.

(Sorry, had to borrow the pic somewhere.)

Just think Powerpuff Girls cuteness animation combined with Itchy and Scratchy (from The Simpsons) hi-jinks. Add gore. Add LOTS of gore. Stir. Then throw it all into a high-powered threshing machine. After they're done, pour into frosty glasses. Yum!

(Or as my officemate, Perni, once told me, Happy Tree Friends is something you can watch when you're feeling down and you want to be cheered up. Or at least know that some people have it worse than you. Now if that ain't a blurb recommending it, I don't know what is.)

In the writing field, [identity-protected] managed to review a short story I completed last month while on vacation and I'll be implementing the corrections, recommendations and revisions as soon as I can. However, I'll try to complete another story first so that I'll be coming in fresh. Hmm, a story a month? That's not so bad, right?

Up next: a review of David Gemmell's Morningstar.