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Bad, bad, bad…

/ A.J. Colby / 1 Comment

…that’s what I’ve been calling myself the past couple of days.

I’ve been neglecting this blog something terrible, and even though every day I tell myself I need to post something, anything, I can’t seem to think of anything to write. Mr. Awesome Sauce keeps telling me that my readers/followers don’t care whether I’m writing about the process of writing, something silly one of the cats did, or even what I had for breakfast this morning (Egg, sausage and cheese Lean Pockets for anyone who’s curious). He insists that it doesn’t matter what I write about , as long as I write something. I know he’s right, but sometimes I want to tell him that that’s easier said than done.

Other times I kinda want to smack him in his pretty little face. It’s very unfair when he uses logic against me, it’s such an unfair advantage!

So here I am just writing about whatever pops into my mind…Ooh! I got some new fish over the weekend. We have a 29 gallon tank set up in the living room which we’ve had for going on two years now that has lots of lovely, pretty fish including our golden bristlenose plecostamus, Big Fat George. About a year after we set up that tank I got the insane idea that I wanted to get a 60-70 gallon tank and set it up as a fully planted tank. Always the voice of reason, Mr. Awesome Sauce suggested that we start out a little smaller. Reluctantly I agreed, and we picked up a cheap 10 gallon at our local Petsmart and I tried my hand at managing a planted tank.

I’m so glad we started small. Planted tanks are…different. Not hard per say, but definitely not as easy as a tank decorated with plastic plants. It didn’t take long for my enthusiasm to wane, and while my plants have been doing well since setting up the tank, it’s pretty much just been sitting there for the past year. Well, it seemed like fate finally decided to step in and do something about my fishless tank over the weekend.

While cleaning our big tank I managed to break the glass top in half, (d’oh!) resulting in an emergency trip to Petsmart to get a replacement. While there I just happened to take a gander at the fish and saw that they had finally started carrying the golden plecos like George. Unlike their brown and black counterparts, these little guys stay small, getting no bigger than 6 inches, which is the perfect size for the two tanks we have. They also had neon tetras on sale, so I snagged a few of those too.

Here are some slightly blurry, cell phone pictures of the tank…

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This is Oberyn, our little pleco. I decided to name him after Oberyn Martell, from Game of Thrones.

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And here you can kinda make out a few of the neon tetras, who I’ve named the Sand Sisters after Oberyn’s daughters.

Hopefully the fish will all have longer, happier lives than any of the characters from GoT!

 

Ooh Shiny!

/ A.J. Colby / Leave a comment

OohShiny

I’ve been told on more than one occasion, usually by Mr. Awesome Sauce, that I have a chronic, incurable case of A.D.O.S. (Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny!), and that got me to wondering if any other writers are all around artistic/crafty/disorganized peeps like me.

I know for a fact that two authors I have followed for years, Kim Harrison and Carrie Vaughn, are both crafty individuals (oddly enough they’re both knitters/crocheters), and Jim Butcher is into RPGs, which while not necessarily crafty is awesomely nerdy and worthy of mentioning, because seriously, Dungeons & Dragons. ‘Nuff said.

I myself have a pretty varied repertoire of artsy skills that I like to practice from time to time including jewelry making, sewing, quilting, and drawing. I’m also a gaming nerd, but that’s a whole other post for another day. I also have a tendency to bounce from one hobby to the next, focusing on it for weeks or months at a time in something akin to compulsion until I can’t stand it anymore and have to set it aside for a while. These obsessive episodes have included cookie making, costume making, and quilting. But writing has always been my one true love, and is something I have sought to excel at for more than twenty years. It is the one thing I always return to time and again without fail.

I can’t help wondering if we literary types have so many different creative outlets because we write, and the constant pondering and planning that comes along with that opens up an endless well of creativity, or if we write because we are inherently creative people, and writing just becomes another outlet among many.

What about you, dear readers? Do you have a plethora of other creative outlets, and do you find yourself torn between them and writing? Do you, like me, have phases wherein you can’t focus on anything besides one particular type of creative project?

Review: Penny Dreadful

/ A.J. Colby / Leave a comment

PennyDreadful

If you haven’t heard about Showtime’s new horror show starting May 11th you’re probably not the only one. With very little marketing, the show seems to be thus far mostly flying under the radar, something that I seriously hopes changes soon. Mr. Awesome Sauce and I had caught a couple of commercials for the upcoming show, and instantly knew that it was going to be our kind of show – a psychological thriller brimming with mystery, magic, and mayhem, with a healthy dose of violence and grittiness thrown in for fun. So when we saw that the first episode was already available to watch OnDemand we thought we’d give it a try. With only the glow of the fish tank to light the room the stage was set with sufficient eeriness, and we settled down to watch.

Our only complaint? Those 60 minutes went by far too fast, and now we have to wait two weeks for the next new episode! Does anyone know someone who works at Showtime who can be bribed with baked goodies to send us the entire season? ;o)

With a dark and stylistic air similar to 2001’s From Hell, it is refreshing in its lack of apology for being gruesome and cutthroat from the very onset. Fast paced, with an interesting cast of characters, my only hope is that the story doesn’t become too bogged down or convoluted with too many divergent stories battling for prominence. In the first episode we are already introduced to vampires and Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, as well as the mysterious Vanessa Ives (played by Eva Green), and the reluctant gunslinger Ethan Chandler (played by Josh Hartnett).

I’m curious to see how the series will progress, and what adventures await the band of heroes, each of whom seem to be haunted by their own demons.