First, the flaw: There isn't a lick of subtlety anywhere in this movie. My God, there's not one trace. There are good performances, and there are stylish flashback/expository sequences, and there is an on-rushing hoard of characters, but there's no subtlety.

In this movie, that's not a flaw. ( Spoilers )

Yeah, it's a kid's movie. I saw it with a kid. He loved that crazy fucking movie, and so did I.

blackhanddpants relates a wonderful story here. It's one of those moments that make living real. Don't miss out.

I forgot to mention:

I wrote this from the Ballard library around the corner from the movie theater. This is a terrific place to steal some time and make my weekly goal (which I did).

I feel the story is building momentum again, and expect to make better progress next week.

Also, there's a sign at the library entrance that says Cory Doctorow will be here tomorrow at 2pm to talk about Little Brother. Cory Doctorow!

Alas, I will be on kid patrol, and I know Mango Eater will not sit still for an author his dad is interested in.

Maybe another time.

I just saw IRON MAN and...

Wait. Did I mention the dream I had this morning?

It was very pleasant--Salad Eater and I went to a Memorial Day party together. It was a yearly event somewhere, and I had insisted that we attend because years later she had broken up with me on the eve of this party by moving out of town. I had gone to find her and win her back, succeeded, and had a great time with her.

I woke from the dream just as she woke, and I told her about it. I also told her that the dream was so fresh in my mind that I couldn't remember what was real and what wasn't. Had she once broken up with me by moving to another city?

She laughed and lightly smacked the side of my head, which was all the answer I needed.

Anyway, IRON MAN (SPOILERS) is solid from start to (almost-)finish. Poor Tony Stark is a jillionaire, weapon-building industrialist who never has to see the effects of his own weapons on human bodies. His test of a missile system hits an empty mountain side and the only time U.S. soldiers fire their weapons, we never see who they're shooting at and are quickly killed.

The villain of the piece is, of course, selling Stark's weapons tech to the bad guys--garden-variety terrorists of no specific ethnicity (and therefore no specific cause to fight for) who kill for hire and attack poor Afghan villages for some reason. Them, we see fire weapons.

Once Stark realizes what his work is being used for, he renounces all weapon-building and immediately... well, he immediately builds himself an Iron Man suit. I guess someone's living in denial, but he's not the most enlightened guy in the world.

The acting is great, even when the dialog is extra-cheesy. The stars talk fast and sell the emotions with their eyes. And the final armor fight is just what I would have wanted. The easter egg scene at the end of the credits was a bit of a let down--it looked rushed and had no impact--and a little too much anti- for the climax.

Overall, though, a terrific movie.

We found out why Mango Eater didn't want to meet any of the first grade teachers at his new school: The student teacher who has been working with his kindergarten class will be teaching first grade next year, although they're not sure where. He intends to go to whichever school she is in, so she can be his teacher again.

Which is cute, but not gonna happen, I don't think.

Today, Salad Eater took him out of the house to have a climbing lesson at REI. "To give me time alone," she said. I was upset about that for a couple minutes at first because Saturday is family day, and now that he's started school and play dates, I'm a little protective of our time together. Even if I do need some extra writing time to make up this week's goal.

Then I realized I could go see IRON MAN.

So, I'm off in a couple minutes to catch a bus, do some writing and watch a movie. Did I mention that it's sunny and 77F out there? I ought to be sitting out on the grass somewhere.

I hope you enjoy your day, too.

A very strange article (Boobs v moobs) covers a recent court decision in England stating that men's chests are not private parts the way women's are, even if the man is obese and has "moobs" has started popping up in a couple places.

It's not only strange because of the word "moobs," which I hope never to come across again, but because the article focuses so much space on a bunch of homophobic and misogynistic commenters on the original papers web site (no link from me).

Is this a piece of media criticism meant to fill out a thin piece? What the hell?

Hmm. Are my posts getting too long? Would folks prefer I put them behind a cut?

Speak now...

Tuesday, the boy stayed home from school because he's bored there and doesn't learn anything. I agreed to look after him all day provided he promised to go to school for the rest of the week, no argument. [1]

Wednesday, he was sick with a 101F fever. No school again. [3] I stayed home with him because Salad Eater had unbreakable appointments (and really, I'll take any excuse to call in to work), but he wasn't feeling all that well at the end of the day.

Thursday was open house at his new school.

For them what doesn't know: Mango Eater tested into the Advanced Learning Program, or whatever it's called (I should really learn the name) earlier this year. He was in 99th percentile in reading and math, for which I take no credit at all; he did all that on his own--I just tried to keep him supplied with books he wanted.

That places him in a special school across town, rather than the one just up the hill from us. He didn't want to go to the new school. He wanted to stay at the old one (except when he actually has to go to the old one, at which point he tantrums like crazy to stay home.)

Salad Eater had already gone to an introductory thing at this school months ago, but the boy and I had never seen it. We were planning to take him, but... 101F fever.

Well, he was sick enough to stay home from school but well enough to pressure his mom into taking him to REI to buy him a pair of Crocs (as if the kid needs more shoes). His fever was gone, but he still had the cough and fatigue. So I took the bus up there (OMG, and what a bus it was [4]) and met them for the open house.

Good things: He's sold on the school. Once he saw that the gym has a climbing wall, I knew we had him. The classrooms seem small to me, and the building is very, very old and very, very stuffy, but the teachers and staff were terrific. And they have a terrific little library.

Bad things: Did I mention that the building is old? His classroom will probably be in a windowless basement, and the school itself is two busses away from our place. And they aren't busses that run all the time, either. No volunteering for us next year.

Overall, we think it will be good for him. He desperately needs a school that challenges him. He loves his current teacher (and so do we) and he likes his friends, but he doesn't want to go if he isn't going to learn anything.

Plus, if it doesn't work out, there's always homeschooling.

[1] And argue he does! It's all arguing, all the time lately. It's great that he's asserting his independence and thinking for himself and all, but when I taught him not to blindly obey authority figures, I didn't mean me. [2]

[2] That's a joke. No lectures of child development or how to handle my own son, please.

[3] Of course he coughed all over me, but did I get sick so I could take the rest of the week off? Nope. Non-communicable little bastard.

[4] You know what's awesome? Seeing those hostile-slogan T-shirt guys running free in their own habitat. I've always wondered who bought those "Your village called. They want their idiot back" shirts, and now I know.

In fact, I saw whole herds of them, stampeding resentfully across the sidewalk and pushing their way to the back of the bus. "Save the drama for your mama" and "No, I don't have ROID RAGE. I just don't like you." and "Cancel my subscription. I don't need your issues." all roaming free. It was like a safari tour, but the animals were allowed on the vehicle with you. And you just knew they'd bite.

It was like a tour of East Rage Issues, Loserville.

I have a couple research questions related to my story, and I'm not sure who to ask except you guys.

1) How common is it for the white mark on a horse's face (I'm sure there's a name for it but I have no idea what it is) to be extremely irregular? I don't just mean asymmetrical, but genuinely crooked. Maybe starting on the far left side of the face near the mouth and continuing up over the right eye.

2) If a horse is in a stable in cold weather (say high 30's low 40's and drizzling rain) is the animal likely to go outside? The doors are all open, so it can go where it wants. Would it prefer to be out of the rain or out of an enclosed space? Or would it depend on the personality of the horse?

Thanks.

also via ezraatprospect:

Catcalls: Flattery or Harassment?

Oy.

John Edwards' endorsement of Barack Obama prompts Ezra Klein to write about how we, as a nation, disapprove of the current president without taking responsibility for him. (And here's a followup post.)

It's a terrific post. It also makes me tremendously uncomfortable. I never voted for Bush, but there was a time when I supported some of his policies. Like a lot of Americans, I drank the Kool Aid and supported the invasion of Iraq. I argued for the rightness of it, and by doing so, betrayed all of my core beliefs.

I'm not proud of that but I don't want to hide it, either. I screwed up. This nation screwed up. We have to accept that if we're going to do better in the future.

1) Sunday morning, as I was walking to Starbucks to do some writing, a pickup truck nearly ran me down. It was one of those big, manly pickups with the big, manly blind spot on the left side of the windshield.

It was the same intersection where I was nearly killed with my family. Assholes in this town can't turn left.

For everyone reading this: if you nearly run down someone in your car, don't just wave at them through a closed window as you drive away. That's happened twice this year already.

---

2) The latest book Mango Eater's teacher sent home for him to read was a little biography of Amelia Earhart. He told me that he didn't need to read it because he knew her story already. I asked him what he knew about her.

He looked at her picture on the cover of the book. "She was a pilot."

"Oh come on! You're just getting that from the cover."

"No, Dad, I know that she got lost flying her plane to Howland Island--"

Me, internally: WTF?

"--and her plane probably crashed into the ocean. No one has been able to find her."

Oh, crap. "That's very good, son. Let's see if this book can tell us anything new."

---

3) Springtime in Seattle:

---

4) A conservative Democrat won a special election in the heart of red state America. I don't pretend this is a victory for liberalism--Travis Childers is nobody's idea of a lefty--but it is pretty clear that voters are turning away from the Republican Party, and it's not because of a clever, devastating strategy on the part of the Democrats. The Democrats have done little more than bow and scrape for the last few years.

What has prompted the American people to vote against Republicans? The GOP has been running the government the way they have long wanted to, and no one likes the results.

---

5) You can, in fact, mount an interior hollow-core door onto a hinge with toggle bolts.

Last night, this LJ received its first comment spam.

I feel like I've arrived.

Mango Eater woke late last night coughing. I slept through it, considering the problems I've been having with sleep lately, but Salad Eater sat up with him for a long time.

I'm tempted to stay home from work (any excuse in a storm) so she can do what she needs to do and the boy can skip school.

Today, his class is going on a field trip. Last night he told me he hates field trips.

edit: I'm going to call in late.

Everyone Loves Blue Dog is going to run long. I was worried about this at the 35K mark, but I've just hit what I expected to be the half-way point and I'm at 65K words. Damn.

I'm used to writing long on my short fiction and even did it once with a script, but not with a book.

Luckily, I already have some ideas on what to cut.

Last weekend, This American Life teamed up with the NPR news division to produce a special hour-long report on the housing bubble and how it turned into a worldwide credit crisis. The episode was called The Giant Pool of Money.

This isn't just a story about a couple people who borrowed money and couldn't repay. It isn't about some bank with a lot of bad debt on its hands. (There's a little of both those things, but that's not what the show is about.) It's a look at the structural problems that fueled the bubble and caused the whole thing to collapse. It also clearly demonstrates why capitalism needs careful regulation.

It's an hour long, but the subject is so interesting and intelligently handled that the time flies by. And it's free this week.

Highly recommended.

It's time for me to place holds on Halloween movies at the library. Last year, I watched all the Val Lewton films. Two years ago I watched the classic Universal monster movies. This year, prompted by a recent post by eeknight, I'm looking for suggestions for something different from those two above.

So I'm looking for horror films, preferably in black & white, definitely with very little gore and absolutely without the kind of torture porn that's been showing in theaters for the last few years.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Yesterday I mentioned that I contrived to show my old rpg books to Mango Eater, and that while he'd seemed mildly interested, he wasn't going to go for them any time soon.

I seriously misjudged his fascination.

When I returned from my morning writing at Starbucks (short version: I met the lame-o goal but not the real one), he was at the computer already designing a new Netshift level. He worked at it for most of the morning and part of the afternoon, doggedly solving other people's puzzles and creating his own, but one thing he told me was that he also wanted to play Chill.

So, after convincing him to try a few of the easier Netshift levels alone, I sat down and wrote up a quick haunted house. It wasn't as Scooby-Doo as it could have been, but he loved it. He was wide-eyed and engaged for the whole two hours it took us to finish.

( A brief description of the adventure I made for him: )What I didn't expect, but should have, was that he would immediately look at me and say "Now I'll make up an adventure for you!

Generally speaking, you do not want to be in a game with a six-year-old as Game Master. But what could I do? I'd stuck my foot in it.

The adventure he created for me was gloriously random, completely improvised, and fucking bonkers. He had coyotes armed with bows and arrows, swords, staffs and armor (not coyote-men, actual coyotes). He had a werewolf I could beat up with a punch to the nose. He had a weather-changing machine that turned night into day. He had a vampire that played ping pong with an invisible ghost. He had a painting of a human head with nothing but an orange spiral from the neck down. He had a huge glass room filled with bats flying around and around, all but one carrying a little bone and that last carrying a special brown marble my PC needed.

And that was just the first hour. Jeez, it was so arbitrary that I could barely focus on it after a while. We're supposed to finish his adventure on Tuesday, and then I'm supposed to be running another game for him (designed in my Copious Free Time, of course.

What have I unleashed?

Today, I finally did what you folks suggested in that poll x-number of weeks ago and bought all the (first edition Pacesetter) Chill books I didn't already have.

But because Salad Eater has to work tomorrow, we had to celebrate Mother's Day today. That meant distracting the boy long enough for her to work on her art for a few hours. So I roped him into helping me dig out my boxes of gaming books and search for all the Pacesetter Chill I already have (I have a bad habit of buying books I already own--I remember the desire to have it but not that I've satisfied that desire. I'm sure that reveals something telling about my personality, so there you go.)

So we went through two big boxes and a bookshelf with him pulling out those old books. And of course I described to him, just a little, what they were for and how they worked. He was intrigued (Yes! The plan is coming together.) but not ready to play.

Hey, he's six. We have time.

Anyway, I have more of the books than I thought, so filling out the set was cheaper than expected. Another score.

And Salad Eater got to spend time with her pencil and easel, which makes me very happy.

Yeah, it's Mother's Day at the Eater place, and still it's all about me.

Except for the food: we had eggs and kielbasa for breakfast, a huge salad for lunch and in the afternoon we went for a long walk by the canal and ate at Jai Thai. It was good, but not as good as I remember. We ended the day watching a DVD of all the Pixar short films. (Meh. I thought they were mostly good but not interesting.)

Oh, and did I mention that I finally finished the revision to the first 58K words of Everyone Loves Blue Dog? It's 61K words now, but let's not focus on that right now. I have given the long vaudeville hook to the boring version of some minor antagonists and replaced them with more interesting characters. They all do more interesting things now.

I've improved the setting. I've eliminated a major plot flub, in which twenty or so people dash madly out of a house and then, 20 pages later, are all still there. Duh. No, that's not emphatic enough: DUH!! Wake up, writer. Wake up and pay attention.

I've also added a bunch of walk on characters, who will come back in a (hopefully) unexpected way.

There are still some issues, of course. I know what the next couple of plot beats will have to be, and I know pretty much how the book ends. There's a blank space in the outline, though, that says only "Here be monsters." Which is literally true, in this case, but nevermind.

So I should have gone to be two hours ago so I'd be fresh for tomorrow morning's writing session. What the hell is wrong with me?

See what I mean? It's all about me.

Professional photographers recreate kiddie drawings. seen via mighty_god_king


Seriously. I'm about as empathetic as Two-Face is pretty. Funny.


Wife uses animal training techniques to improve her husband. NY Times Modern Love column continues to be appalling.


Lie in bed for a living. No, seriously. Spend three months in bed--earn seventeen grand.


Household debt in the U.S. over the last few decades. I'm glad Salad Eater and I were in a position to pay off most of our debt, and we can pay off the rest as soon as we find the time to write the check. Still, last year at this time we were up to our eyeballs, and we weren't alone.


Five ways you should not introduce yourself to an art director. via Making Light.