The Itch

I feel like I'm getting that itch again. It's that itch to create something, to break out the pencils and sketch or design. Every so often it hits me, I feel like I'm spinning my wheels and just need to get the ideas and impulses out of my head and onto paper. If I were a better writer I'd have a few stories to work on as well but plotting has never been my strong suit.

The main problem with this urge is that I'm terribly out of practice. All of the ideas floating around my head turn into rigorous tests of patience as I try to get them down on paper. Perhaps if I'd have kept up with drawing over the years it wouldn't be so frustrating to get back into "shape", but unfortunately I've let myself go. Like any other physical skill, drawing skill deteriorates without practice and I just don't seem to have the time to sketch and experiment like I used to.

What I should probably do is take 30 minutes at home or lunch and just free form sketch. It takes time to get the eye talking to the hand but some short practice each day will help. I know this itch is just going to get worse until I can satisfy it, and that's not going to happen until I stop sucking at drawing!

Semi-Heroic

A few thoughts on last night's episode of Heroes:

Mohinder still appears to be aiding the company, but apparently only to destroy the virus. If this is really the only reason he brought Noah back remains to be seen.
Adam may turn out to be a good villain yet. But despite his intentions he still doesn't come across as very menacing. I wonder if Hiro will actually kill him.
Peter is extremely naive, to the point where it's almost unbelievable. And despite being the most powerful hero, he still stands around with that dumb look on his face and lets everyone he comes in contact with lead him around on a leash. Get it together Peter!
Niki, Micah and Monica are a complete waste of time at this stage of the story. They are contributing absolutely nothing to the show and merely serve to irritate me and take valuable screen time away from the other heroes.
Hiro is impulsive, but at least he takes action. His charge at Peter truly shows his character. I can't wait for an epic battle with Adam.
Sylar is still a badass, even without powers. I have a feeling that the more he manipulates and kills those around him, the more his powers are beginning to come back to him. He's also killed off one half of the Whiny Twins, which scores him bonus badass points in my book.
I'm surprised Victoria Pratt ended up being so insignificant. Sure, she knew the location of Shanti 138, but so did Bob, Kaito and probably Angela. It also appears that she didn't have any powers at all, but was merely a top player in the Company before calling it quits.

So we have one more episode left in this current story arc, and most likely the last episode for this season. There still seems to be a lot of loose ends and too much is unexplained. Is Sylar going to blackmail Mohinder into restoring his powers? Will Hiro kill Adam? Will Niki be cured? What deal does Noah make to rejoin his family? Will Ando join the action or be completely left behind? Will Maya turn on Sylar once she discovers her brother is dead? I hope we'll get answers to most of these questions before Heroes signs off.

Terminator's Salvation?

The Terminator movies have always been in my top 10 favorite movies of all time. T2 is simply one of the best movies ever, hands down, no doubt about it. T3 wasn't as good but still held the action to a pretty high standard. There is also a new series slated to hit Fox next year, The Sarah Connor Chronicles starring Summer Glau from Firefly and Lena Headey from 300. I have high hopes for this show but knowing Fox it'll get canceled about 5 episodes in.

However, these movies and shows aren't the reason for my post today. There is a new Terminator sequel in the works, called Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. Now the title had me a bit worried, and the fact that McG is directing didn't fill me with warm and fuzzies either. Today, however, a very good piece of news was released: Christian Bale has been cast as John Connor. This fills me with much joy and happiness since Mr. Bale singlehandedly saved the Batman franchise and is just an all around great actor. Not to mention this may enable the producers to put together a much better cast than we had for T3. I'll be watching this production very closely now and hoping for a triumphant return for the Terminator franchise.

Kids are Great

So last weekend we were having a discussion with our eight-year-old daughter about school. It was one of those "what do you want to be when you grow up" type talks and we were explaining how college works. We were discussing the different types of schools and that I had almost taken up graphic design at an art college when Cori made the following observation:

"When I grow up I would rather go to Art college instead of Smart college."

If only I had been able to rationalize the difference between choosing graphic design and psychology like my daughter, I would probably be in a much different place today. Gotta love kids, they say the darnedest things!

System Overload

I can't do it like I used to. It's sad, but true. Actually I'm not sure I was ever really able to do it in the first place. What the hell am I talking about here? My ability to track, consume and absorb all of the media that interests me of course! What did you think I was talking about? :)

Recently it seems that there has been an overwhelming amount of good books, comics, movies, games, blogs, TV shows, music and other assorted sensory data, and I'm just having a hard keeping up with it all. This may sound stodgy of me, but it wasn't like this when I was a kid. There were still books, movies, music, TV and games of course, but it never seemed to me like I wouldn't have the time to get to all of it if I wanted. These days, there truly is too much out there. Even with family duties aside I don't think I could watch, read or play everything I want to.

I'll use my current queue of "stuff" to do as an example:
Read: Dark Tower III-The Waste Lands by Stephen King
Read this week's comics: New Avengers, X-Factor, World War Hulk, Thor, Captain Marvel, Serenity and Astonishing X-Men
Watch: Smallville (this and last week's episode), Californication, 28 Weeks Later, and this weekend's sports lineup
Play: The Witcher, Call of Duty 4, Hellgate: London, Siphon Filter: Dark Mirror
Browse: The remainder of my blogs, eBay

As you can see, that's quite a few hours worth of entertainment goodness. And I only listed what want to get this weekend. We won't even go into that list.

I suppose my point with all this is that we're surrounded by media on all sides now, and no matter what your tastes there is more than enough to keep you occupied 24/7. Whether or not this is a good thing is up for debate, I supposed it all depends on how well you can balance these distractions with the every day rigors of real life. I know this is an everyday challenge for myself and my family.

Do you feel there is just too much good stuff out there? How do you keep up with it all?

Bookbump

If you are an avid reader like myself, but also a poor organizer (like myself), then head over to Bookbump and try out their webapp for cataloging your book collection. It's fairly simplistic and lets you add currently owned books with the ability to track them by pages read, start/completion dates, condition and even who you loaned it out to. It also lets you create custom lists which is a nice feature for me, I have a written want-list that I lose every month and can now keep track of it online. Very handy if you are a non-programmer type and can't create this kind of database on your own.

Serenity Now! Er, next year actually...

I'm very excited that Joss Whedon's excellent series Firefly will be making a comeback next year. Unfortunately it won't be on television, but will show up in the form of another mini-series from Dark Horse Comics. If you haven't watched Firefly, or Serenity (the feature film based on the show), then you are missing one of the best sci-fi programs ever created. This is thinking man's sci-fi with a ton of humor and action packed in. The comics offer more of the same and help to fill in the gaps between the end of the show and the start of Serenity. If you're interested in reading the comic series I highly recommend picking up the Serenity: Those Left Behind graphic novel, shown in hardcover format below. You can also read an interview with Joss Whedon here.

The Results are In!

We're having a girl! Yes, it's true, I'm totally outnumbered! And since my wife and I already had a boy's name picked out, I suppose it's back to the drawing board.

Either way, I'm still super excited :D