I’ve sort of been busy and sort of not. We spent the Fourth of July Weekend house-sitting for Jeff and Teresa. Mostly we were providing company for the dogs. I’m not a dog person. Nizzibet is a dog person. I don’t understand dogs. The dogs were delighted to have our company. They followed us all over the house. They slept when we slept. If we spent enough time sitting still they slept at our feet.

Why?

The cat showed up when the cat felt like it. He slept on the bed after we’d crashed out. He only did that on Saturday and Sunday nights. By Monday we’d gotten so twitchy that he slept downstairs.

I have to give Cricket and Trixie credit, they dealt with the fireworks quite well. Yes, they barked when there were a lot of booms close to the house, but mostly they ignored the noises. After all the stories I’ve heard of freaked-out dogs on the 4th I was pleased to meet a couple of exceptions.

You are the Sun card. The light of the Sun reveals
all. The Sun is joyful and bright, without fear
or reservation. The childish nature of the Sun
allows you to play and feel free. Exploration
can truly take place in the light of day when
nothing is hidden. The Sun’s rays fill you with
energy so that you may live life to its
fullest, milking pleasure out of each day. Such
joy and energy can bring wealth and physical
pleasure. To shine in the light of day is to
have confidence, to soak up its rays is to feel
the freedom of a child. Image from: Stevee
Postman. http://www.stevee.com/

The worst thing about George Romero’s new zombie movie is Dennis Hopper. Not that Hopper was bad, it’s just that he’s Dennis Hopper. Pretty much the only role he plays these days is Dennis Hopper. He does a great job at it. Trouble is, it reminds me too much that I’m watching a movie. Dennis Hopper just doesn’t exist in the real world.

Otherwise? Really enjoyed the movie. I don’t think I need to see an unrated extended gore cut. Plenty of gore as far as I was concerned. I did like the characters so I wouldn’t mind seeing them again if there were a sequel. Which, hopefully there will be. Somebody should give Romero lots of money on a regular basis to keep making movies.

After fifteen days Epilogue.net has posted one of my submissions to my gallery there. There are also new, color additions to my gallery at Kaijuphile.com.

Yesterday was an around the house sort of day. The part not spent doing chores involved me reading Isabel Allende’s Zorro aloud to Nizzibet. The book has finally got into some swordplay and daring do so both of us felt the need to get visual stimulus to go with the words. I rented the 1920 Mark of Zorro starring Douglas Fairbanks and the 1940 Mark of Zorro starring Tyrone Power. Both were fun. Despite being the based on the same book they managed to feature different character relationships and different plot twists. I expect we’ll get around to reading the original novel sooner or later.

Steve Ahlquist has posted the last three issues of Oz Squad – number ten, Lil’ Oz Squad and the Millenium Special. Sometime soon I’ll have to set up links to each issue from the history page. And adjust the links on the Oz Comics page. Some of the links have gone dead during the brief time I’ve had the page up. Stupid internets.

What? Oh, did I say that out loud?

I’m just saying.

Once a week Nizzibet goes to a coffee shop (Mr. Spot’s) and spends a few hours writing. Digging up her childhood. At about four o’clock a good friend of ours comes by to read and critique what she’s written. Then we usually go get something to eat or I get dropped off at home to cook while they find some DVD or video to rent from Rain City Video. We do something fun and basically mindless.

Nizz and I don’t talk much about what she writes. I want to read the book when she’s done. Reading it in pieces means she’ll want me to comment in pieces and I figure having one friend-editor is enough. And I’ve heard enough of the stories to know that it’s not a story for me to read casually. Tuppenceworth has published an excerpt. It’s not something you’d want to read first thing in the morning. Or just before going to bed.

Steve has posted the contents of Oz Squad 5-9.This is the time travel arc and feature Terry Loh’s illustrations. Nope, Terry doesn’t seem to have a web presence either.

Steve Ahlquist has begun posting the pages to the original Oz Squad at his website. So far he’s got issues one, two, three and four – the Andrew Murphy ones – online. Mr. Murphy doesn’t seem to have a web presence and has apparently dropped out of comic illustration entirely. (At least that’s what it looks like after running through a few dozen Google pages. Google has thousands of listings for Andrew Murphys but I’m not dedicated enough to check out all of them.)