Done. Finally, my last version of Phantasy Punk is out of my head and on paper...err...so to speak.

Much like my zombie story, this is the last chance for this one. If it doesn't work, it's going in the vault and I'm moving on.

That said, I still need some outside opinions. Anyone want to beta test this baby for me?

Also, I'm not sure which story to work on next. It's either my cyber punkish MMO/Reality/Faith-Questioning story, or my Total Recall-esque/Time Travel but not Really Time Travel/Digital Collective Uncioncious story. Hrm, decisions decisions...

"Hello Livejournal. Been a long time baby. Oh, don't look at me that way. I been busy. You know I love you."

So, five things make a post:

1) A house, we have one. Bree, Matt and I all moved into a condo in Moon at the end of October. With lots of help from our friends (THANK YOU DAVE, SPAZZY, VICTOR, CAROLYN, and KENT!), a 14 foot uHaul, and one crazy weekend, we moved from our third floor apartment to our three storey (as in number of floors, not number of Joshes) condo. Mortgage is cheaper than our rent. We have more space. We have a garage. We have a working doorbell.

2) Candide is shaping up to be my favorite Quantum production. Ever. The music is amazing. The acting hilarious (in a good way). The attendance is great. We've got one week left, after which I plan to sleep for a month.

3) Christmas. Had to tell my parents I was spending Christmas day with Matt's folks. Ouch. That hurt. It had to happen sometime though, and I think the presents I have planned for them will make up for it. (Not that I'm buying their love. Far from it. But the gifts will be handmade and very sentimental.)

4) Tonight I'm going to see Junot Diaz at the Heinz Lecture Series. I'm looking forward to it, as I really enjoy ed Oscar Wao.

5) I upgraded my phone to a Motorola Droid, which uses the Google Andriod 2.0 OS. Holy crap I love it. Most geeky yet useful (for me or an academic) app I've found so far is a barcode/QR Code reader that will look up books online and allow you to search their contents from your phone. What's this mean? I can scan the barcode of the book I want to reference, type in the phrase I'm looking for, and my phone will tell me which page to go to. Shit is amazing. Why couldn't I have had this app while I was in school?

There seems to have been some misunderstanding about moving dates and what not. See, buying a house takes a couple months, and unlike apartments, when they accept your offer you don't get to move in right away.

That said, we sign on the house on the 19th (Lorrie's birthday!). That means we own the house not this Monday, but the following. We get the keys. It's ours.

Since we've got the apartment until Halloween, we're going to take our time moving boxes, taking a little bit over every day after work.

That said, we're renting a truck on the 24th (a Saturday) to move the big things (furniture mostly) and all the other stuff we can't fit in our cars during the week proceeding.

We'll take whatever help we can get. I can't promise much hospitality if you want to come in and help us move boxes, but I can promise you lots of gratitude and maybe a meal or two. Let me know if you think you can help.

It would have made a great novella, but the book was about 250 pages too long. I can understand what Grossman was doing -- building a narrative in which magic doesn't solve anything and human frailty causes all of the problems -- but the lack of likeable characters (except for a few scenes here and there) coupled with the insulting disdain (or at least what seemed like it) for fantasy left me with a severely bad taste in my mouth.

On the one hand, I appreciate how "new" this feels. He puts real people in the shoes of magicians and we get to watch them destroy everything they love, including the Narnia-like fantasy world they're lucky enough to find.

On the other hand, who the hell wants to read that?

Yes, there is redemption in the end. Yes, there is some very good writing scattered throughout the book. Unfortunately, there's too much build up making me loathe the characters. If he could have pulled it off in 150 pages (instead of 400), I think I would have liked it. A lot. As is, I kind of hate it.

It's a credit to Grossman's writing, however, that I didn't decided that until the last third of the book. He's able to keep you hoping, and then crush your hopes. But again, who wants to read a whole novel of that? Shorter works, I feel, are better for giving you disgusting characters that stab you in the gut. Novels should give you characters you want to spend time with. Or at least want to root for.

Trying to get rid of manga before the move. I have:

- The complete set of Deathnote vols 1 - 7. Anyone want them?
- Return to the Labyrinth vol 1
- Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Vols 1 and 2
- Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind Perfect Collection 1
- Road to Perdition (not a manga, but a good graphic novel)

I'll sell individual volumes. Quote me a price and add in a few bucks for shipping. I'll take best offer. You have until this weekend, when I take them to the Half-Priced bookstore.

Also, I'm willing to trade books for help moving. :D

Also, Bree is getting in on the Manga selling action. Click here for her manga: BREE MANGA

All proceeds go to moving day funds/activities like truck rental, gas, and foods (for us and the people who help us move).

Curosty of Matt:

This week has been full of comic books.

Tuesday night I stopped at the Half-Priced bookstore and found more books than I could afford, so I limited myself to the cheapish graphic novels. Why is it I either find nothing I'm looking for or everything I'm looking for?

Anyway, I brought my stack home and found a second stack already waiting for me. So, since the novel I'm reading is rather lukewarm, I decided to work my way through them.

This week, I have read, in no particular order, the following:

• Y: The Last Man - Motherland (Vol. 9)


• Runaways: Dead Wrong


• The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite


• Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus (Vol 1)


• Rose by Jeff Smith (a prelude to Bone)

On a somewhat related note, I've gone back to editing Phantasy Punk (which is sort of about comic books, kinda).

Now, I think, I'm going to take some time and start packing these books into boxes, because moving day is going to sneak up on me faster than I think if I'm not careful.

H'okay, so we have three computers in the office hardwired into a router that's connected to our server (Win 2000). Computer A and Computer B (both 5 year or older Dells) access the network drives just peachy. Computer C, a one year old Dell, lags like nobody's business whenever it tries to access anything on the network.

So far, I've tried changing the router port it's plugged into; changing the network cable that's connecting it to said router port; disabling the wireless part of the network card; checking for viruses and spy ware; running Windows update. None of this has worked and it's still lagging. I kinda doubt the problem lies with the router, since Comp A and Comp B aren't having any problems and I've tried switching ports anyway.

What else can I try before I have to worry about finding a new network card for a 1 year old computer?

Update: Needed to change the network settings to a permanent DNS address. Guess the computer was essentially logging in every time the user tried to access a network drive.

Woo! \O/ Victory.

These Neil Gaiman facts need to be shared:

13. Rumor has it that a NY editor rejected Neil Gaiman’s first book.  This can not be confirmed, as the editor in question was never heard from again.

14. Neil Gaiman can tweet 175 characters.

15. Neil Gaiman’s personal library includes an autographed copy of the Necronomicon.

16. Hitler actually won World War II.  Then Neil Gaiman wrote an alternate-history story in which the allies won, and reality was too intimidated to argue the point.

Read them all here.

Day One (Yesterday) equaled:
Webpage work
Recording an official statement on my car accident
Noodles with Rikki
Phantom of the Attic and the library (with Rikki still)
District 9 with René
Errands for work (mail, mostly)
Errands for myself
Reading in Borders
Buying Snow Leopard
Sushi with Matt
A new issue of <a href="http://www.coalhillreview.com>Coal Hill Review</a> Day Two (Today) equaled: Getting up early MANUAL LABOR (11 hours worth) Good lunch (read: Billy's Troy Hill Bistro) with good company (read: Michelle) but BAAAAAAD service (read: slow) Three baby bunnies One field mouse One toad 75 pound platforms (40ish of them) Surprises at home (good ones) Tired muscles Sore fingers And now, I think, yogurt

So, we've got an intern joining us at the beginning of next month, and I need to set her up with a login to our office server (Windows 2000, connected to a wireless router), so she can help us with database management and the like.

Whoever set up the server initially created an Intern login account, so that's sitting there on the server, ready to go. My question is: how do I set up the intern's laptop (her own, personal PC, running Vista, presumably the "home basic" version) to log into the office server?

Please keep in mind, I know next to nothing about servers besides what they do, and yet I'm the defacto admin since I know more than anyone else in the office. Also, the guy who set it up did so several years ago and is unreachable.

I don't have access to the intern's computer at the moment, since she's currently in Spain, but if there are some online walk-throughs you could point me to I'd appreciate it. Every search phrase I try just points me to setting up the user account on the server end, which a) I know how to do (miraculously), and b) is already done. :/

Gaiman and Doctorow, two of my favorite authors, at Worldcon 2009. Neil's reading one of Cory's short stories. Someday I will be a guest at this con. Someday.

Part One


Part Two

If my life were a video game, you'd have to collect books to earn points.

"Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you, first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes."

1. Dune by Frank Herbert


2. The Waste Lands (Dark Tower book 3) by Stephen King


3. The Gunslinger (Dark Tower book 1) by Stephen King


4. On Writing by Stephen King (book that convinced me I could write)


5. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (book that convinces me I'd get published...because it is drivel)


6. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone by JK Rowling


7. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein


8. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski


9. Ishmael by Daniel Quinn


10. Ulysses by James Joyce


11. American Gods by Neil Gaiman


12. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman


13. After the Quake by Haruki Murakami


14. The Practice Effect by David Brin


15. Enders Game by Orson Scott Card

PROGRESS!

- Wake up @ 9:00 am (and back to sleep at 9:01 until 11:30)
- Put laundry in the washing machine (still plugging along)
- 30 mins of aerobic workout
- Clean
  - Bathroom
  - Kitchen
  - Living Room (tested the Roomba. Love it.)
  - Office
- Watch Let the Right One In (Conclusion: Meh. Good. Very good, in fact. But the book was creepier. Still worth the watch, though).
- Call Enterprise and find out about their daily rates
- Coal Hill Review web page edits
- Write

I'm not sending this out any more. It's run its course and I can't work on it any longer. It goes in the vault, the drawer, the whatever you want to call it. So, for you, my LJ friends, I present the final version of...

Paper Zombie Invasion
by Josh Storey

“The worst apocalypse is the one that never comes.
The one that leaves us as we are—safe, boring, and alone.”
- My college roommate

( Read On... )

Paper Zombie Invasion was rejected. For the last time as far as I'm concerned. It's time to put a bullet in the brainpan of this undead story.