I honestly can't believe we're almost at the end. This is the next to last week of Monkey, Monster or Spaceman -- the light before the end of the tunnel, the last stretch before the mountain peak, the penultimate bite of the last waffle! How can you miss this?

Especially when it's a punk-rock short story called "Animal Crackers" with a very familiar heroine ...

http://djsylvis.com/mms/?p=132

Check it out! Comment! Share and Enjoy! And don't miss next week (the last week), and what I have cooked up for you then!

(Honestly, I can't believe it's almost over. I may get a bit weepy next week, and the week after will seem so hollow and ... unproductive ...)

Okay, I don't know if I'm ever likely to own a car again, but if I did ...

http://www.tfaw.com/Profile/Back-To-The-Future-Flux-Capacitor-Replica___311677

Want!!!

Yes, I stole that expression from too many Stephen King books. But it's for a good cause -- my story, "He Thrusts His Fists Against the Posts", is not only a solidly King-esque ghost tale, it's a hell of a thing that'll leave you wondering where I come up with these ideas ... but seriously, I think it's one of the tightest things I've written in a while, and I very much hope you'll read it.

Check it out! It's at http://djsylvis.com/mms/?p=130 -- and please, share with your friends, and leave me comments!

... this really cheezed me off.

I just rec'd this email from Air Canada:
( Read more... )

... to cristalia! Yaaaayyy!

Okay, in the very nick of time (as in about ten minutes ago), I finished Week 49 and posted it! It's a little prose poem I like to call, "Danny Vs. the Floating Eye" -- and if you need to know any more than that ... well, you really don't. It's all right there for you. ;)

Check it out when you get a chance at http://djsylvis.com/mms/?p=128 -- and let me know what you think! And while you're there, why not vote in the poll for Week #50 -- it's the next to next to last one, you know!

Share and Enjoy!

So yeah, if you're outside the city or haven't checked the news yet, the Toronto Transit system is shut down as of midnight last night:

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_22071.aspx

I'm usually in favour of labour doing what's necessary to get a fair deal from management, but this is just shitty. After they'd promised before to give 48 hours notice of any strike action, they went back on that. Admittedly, they had a reason that's at least understandable -- not wanting to put up with the abuse from riders, and believe me, they get enough abuse to begin with -- but still, shutting down on no notice at midnight on Friday night is just begging the city to hate you.

Sigh. It'll most likely be resolved before Monday morning, but I'm losing sympathy fast for both sides of this dispute.

This thing took forever to come up with ... you know, in some ways I'll be glad when this is over. ;)

This week, I was trying something a little different by allowing a Pirate story -- and somehow, it still wound up with a monster in it, and somehow it wound up with ancient Greek / Lycian pirates instead of the more traditional English breed!

Regardless, check out "The Pirates Chimerical" and see what you think:

http://djsylvis.com/mms/?p=126

I'm listening to some Mel Brooks music, and I can't stop singing the theme song from High Anxiety ...

High Anxiety ... youuuuuu winnnnn ...

Yes, I am a geek.

Hey, folks! We keep counting down toward the end of this crazy ride with Week 46 ... and who'd have thought a Monkey week would be one of the deepest things I've done for the project -- well, spiritually at least. Check out "Hanuman's Tail" at the link below:

http://djsylvis.com/mms/?p=122

And please! Vote in the polls, share with your friends, enjoy!

I put up a new mix!

http://deejsylvis.muxtape.com/

Ran across this on my non-work-related worktime wanderings, and I thought certain people on my friends list might enjoy it quite a bit:

http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/

I want to ask you something. You're not just my friends, a decent number of you are my reading (or, in the case of plays, viewing) public, and there's something I just want to know.
( this rambles a little, I'll save your friends page )

http://deejsylvis.muxtape.com/

Mwah-hah-hah-hahhhhh ...

So if this morning wasn't enough -- if this whole week up to the moment wasn't enough --

I was at work, and I was getting stiff and pretty achy, so I decided to come home. Okay, fine. I don't really have much of any sick time left, but fine.

On my way, I stopped to pick up a package that was supposed to be waiting at the post office. They couldn't find it. It's never been checked into the system. So all they can assume is that it's still on the truck from yesterday and hopefully will be dropped off some time tonight (I have a feeling, jexia, that it's my treats from NZof course it wasn't, that would be a good thing). So god knows when I'll see that, and I have to make a trek out and back again tonight to find out if it showed up.

Then I finally, finally get home. I check the mail, I get in the elevator, I get to my apartment.

The keycard won't work to our apartment. I try it again, nothing.

I go down to the office and complain. "Oh, yeah, they expire after a couple of years." And they don't bother to TELL us this? They don't bother to track that and send, say a fucking NOTE to let us know? What if it'd been midnight and the office wasn't open?

So I'm home now, sore, grumpy as hell, guilty because I'm gonna miss the first Script Frenzy writing session (if anyone shows) and I haven't started writing for it anyway -- and I have to make sure I'm at home when Laura gets back from work -- because, after all, her card might not work -- and simultaneously try to go out and get that package (should it magically appear) at some point before I just collapse for the day and my body refuses to move again.

God fucking dammit. I don't think I'm going to work tomorrow, even if I feel better. This week has had about enough of me.

... I've posted the third (and final) part of the story that's continued through the last few weeks of Monkey, Monster or Spaceman?.

For Part 3 (and links to Parts 1 & 2, if you missed them) check it out here. It took some interesting turns -- it's always a bit odd for me when I write a story not knowing where I'm going to end with it. Not in a bad way, but odd all the same.

Now, on to figuring out what to write for Script Frenzy! You know, that month-long activity that started two days ago. ;)

For those who missed my play, due to time or space refusing to allow you access ... or for those who saw the show and want to see it again ... or just as a memento to those of us in the New Ideas Festival. The complete final dress rehearsal video of "Godzilla on Sundays" is now up on Youtube under my account here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/deejsylvis

It's seven parts (Youtube won't let you upload more than ten minutes in one clip, and some things just didn't break up well into ten minute chunks), and there is one joke that sort of got lost in the second scene, but all in all it's as you would have seen it at the theatre! Enjoy, and please comment -- we're hoping to produce the full-length version in 2009, and we could use your feedback!

I've been finding ways to push myself off into my little box during work lately -- particularly since I've realized how few actual friends I have in my department*. On Fridays in particular, I've been putting my headphones on, queuing up some of my favourite music that's on this computer, and shutting them out completely.

On today's playlist recently:

"Alcohol," Gogol Bordello
"Boss of Me," They Might Be Giants
"I'm a Mason Now," Jonathan Coulton
"Snail Shell," They Might Be Giants
"Bride of Wolfman," Ookla the Mok
"Hotel California," Nerf Herder (not a LZ cover, an original song)
"Tits and Whiskey", Mary Prankster
"That Boy is All About Fun!," Freezepop
"Back in the U.S.S.R.," The Beatles
"The Inevitable Return of the Great White Dope," The Bloodhound Gang

Quite a list there. :D

* Said discovery made when almost none of them bothered to try to make it to my play, which I made quite clear was very important to me. And I've been here for four years, it's not as if we don't know each other well.

Heh. My "Part 2 of 2" became a "Part 2 of 3" -- check it out at http://djsylvis.com/mms/?p=119, or start with Part 1 at http://djsylvis.com/mms/?p=118 . Still, it's a decent story. I know where Part 3 is going, so maybe I'll get lucky and finish it before I dive in to Script Frenzy.

I don't really mind doing a continuing story, though it's sort of at odds with the original plan for the project. And after this wraps up, I'll only have seven weeks left to go. ;)

Is this art?

If not, why not? (I'm not necessarily taking sides, though if you want to argue it go join the comment thread under the video.)

EDIT: In case you don't know the game, Line Rider, it starts with just a blank screen, and you create the path you want the little tobogganing guy to take. So the artist on this drew that entire background, instead of just creating the track (which is creative in and of itself!) for the game.

In the comments, the main argument against it being 'artistic' is that there isn't really any sort of message there ... but is there always a message in a piece of art? I'm not sure ...