LOL! My iTunes just picked Dido's "See You When You're 40" to play... I've been suffering from a minor age crisis all day, so it must be fate XD...

I'm not old, I'm not old, I'm not old, I'm not old, I'm not old, I'm not old, I'm not old, I'm not old, I'm not old, I'm not old... times x until I believe it :P.

Wow! I FINALLY got this been-in-the-works-forever 'latest' reading post written. Yay me! :D

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If anyone reading this blog wants a Google Wave invite, mail me jautero@gmail.com.

Pat of Pat's Fantasy Hotlist runs good contests, evil Dallas Cowboys fan that he is. Right now he's giving away five sets of the first two books in our current Wild Cards triad, INSIDE STRAIGHT and BUSTED FLUSH.

Check out the details at http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2009/11/win-set-of-wild-cards-novels.html

Meanwhile, Tor has scheduled the release of SUICIDE KINGS, the third and concluding volume of the Committee triad, for December 22.


The contributing writers for this one are Ian Tregillis, Caroline Spector, Melinda Snodgrass, Victor Milan, S.L. Farrell, and Daniel Abraham.

Rustbelt, the Amazing Bubbles, Double Helix, the Radical, Gardener, and Jonathan (Bugsy) Hive provide the threads for our tapestry in this tale of love, war, revenge, and madness in the heart of darkness... but other Wild Cards favorites will also appear, including Cameo, Hoodoo Mama, Lohengrin, Dr. Finn, Popinjay, and many more. Not to mention the usual host of new characters, in parts both large and small.

So draw an ace for Xmas, and give Wild Cards a try. You won't be sorry.

Another highlight of my time in Morocco was the wrap party.

For those not familiar with the term, it's a Hollywood tradition to throw a big party when you finish shooting -- or "wrap" -- on a movie or television project. I attended quite a few great wrap parties during my ten years in LA, but the GAME OF THRONES wrap party blew them all away. We held it in the Ouarzazate Museum of Cinema, a pretty amazing place itself, complete with local musicians, belly dancers, acres of Moroccan delicicacies, and lots of spirits to lubricate the exhausted cast and crew. And when the museum threw us out, we just adjourned back to the Berbere Palace, where the party continued.

These few poor snapsnots don't capture a tenth of what went on. But hey, what happens in Morocco stays in Morocco, right?












A great time was had by all... except, of course, for the cast members who shot their scenes in Ireland and Scotland, and the Irish and UK crew who did not get to make the trip to Morocco. The drawback of shooting in so many different places... everyone couldn't be there together to celebrate the end of the shoot.

I know that you all want to see pictures from the pilot shoot for A GAME OF THRONES, but alas, I can't show you the sets, the actors in costume, or any of that good stuff.

Which is not to say that I can't show you a few other things from my recent trip.

Jerusalem in Morocco, f'rinstance.

Here are some shots of the huge city walls and siege machinery that Ridley Scott built for KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, outside the city of Ouarzazate in Morocco. We did shoot some scenes here... but inside, in a court redressed for our purposes.





That's my assistant Ty perched on the battering ram, which was full sized, made of real wood, and appeared to be fully functional. Ditto the siege towers and trebuchets Ridley left.

The interior courtyards were equally impressive (alas, I can't show you the one we redressed and actually used).





I worked in Hollywood for a decade back in my checkered past, and these are the most impressive sets I've ever seen. Hell, Scott's fake castle beats about eighty per cent of the real castles I've seen, and I've visited a LOT of castles.

I'm obviously going to have to put a city under siege sometime soon, so we can go back to Morocco and play with all these cool toys one of these days.

d(é)(p)rive

Life is... well, not magical, but tolerable today.

Jake Delhomme threw more interceptions than Mark Sanchez today, so the Jets beat the Panthers and still have a pulse. A very faint one, to be sure, but still a pulse.

Revis was amazing, completely shutting down Steve Smith.

Obviously my teams can only play well when I am here watching. I can never leave home again.

...or do whatever else you want to it really. The best way to get CHOKER is to ask your nice local comic store type person to "Please put me down for a copy of CHOKER #1 from Image Comics. I have heard this comic actually cures cancer, turns water into wine & can beat a chess grandmaster in 3 moves while toilet training a small effeminate dog. The order code is:

DEC090342

This is what your friendly, most awesome retailer type person will need to know to note down which book to actually order for this month. You order it this month, when it's available, then magically, pixies deliver it to you sometime in February. It's weird how it works, but the pixies apparently run a fairly tight ship.

So, anyway, to make it easier, print this out, give it to them. Hell, maybe print a few out if you like. This all might make it a little easier to get a copy when it hits, into your hot little hands. You see, unless they know people want one, many places may not order a copy, or order enough, since I'm not exactly the same as "huge superhero icon comic X" which is guaranteed to be ordered at least a bit. So if you want it, speak up!

I came home a little while ago from my niece's 7th birthday party. Her actual birthday was a couple of weeks ago, but since she and her brother had the flu when they were supposed to have the party, it was postponed until now. It was fun, but tiring (6 children ranging from 3 to 7-8 year olds were present). Since it is actually my sister's real birthday today, she wasn't present. My mother had given her theatre tickets as a present, so my brother-in-law handled everything :).

I gave Ronja a couple of My Littlest Pets thingies, plus I'd burned her a couple of CDs. In addition to Lady GaGa and Shakira, I made her a special dance mix of catchy earwormy songs from Japan, Korea, and India. And since it's a unique collection made just for her, it's something special that only she has :).

P.S. If anybody's interested in knowing what is in the special Ronja-Mix, here is the tracklist :):

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Henkilökohtainen on poliittista, mutta aniharva asia on henkilökohtaista.

Life is meaningless and full of pain.

Suddenly it seems a thousand years ago when the G-Men were 5-0 and dominating. What the hell happened? Clearly I can't leave the country during football season. My teams just seem to fall apart without me.

Welcome! Tervetuloa!

Feeling much better this morning, and off in a few minutes to celebrate Thanksgiving with friends and family.

(I am once again relying on TIVO to record the Giants - Broncos contest tonight, so no commentary about it here, please. I probably won't watch it until tomorrow).

I have a lot to be thankful for. My readers, my friends, and most of all Parris.

I hope all you reading this are similarly blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Teemu Mäki masturboi tappamansa kissan päälle tietenkin siksi, jotta hänen turtumuksensa ja välinpitämättömyytensä manifestoituisi myös biologisella tasolla. Tai kenties tarinallisella: orgasmi, pieni kuolema. Yhdynnän jälkeen jokainen eläin on surullinen. Ellei surullinen, ainakin välinpitämätön. Kenties Mäki tarvitsi masturbaation tunteakseen jotain; masturbaatio on nykymiehen keino kuroa etäisyyttä itsensä ja jonkin ilmiön välillä umpeen. Ruumis ei hätkähdytä tai sävähdytä enää ketään, joten sitä lähestytään runkkaamalla. Se tuottaa jonkinlaisen tilanmuutoksen.

Leena Tähtinen kuoli muutama päivä sitten syöpään. :( Melkoinen menetys suomalaiselle tähtitieteelle ja erityisesti sen popularisoinnille. Ehdin lukea Tähtisen kirjoituksia viitisentoista vuotta. Hänellä oli harvinainen taito tuottaa vaikeista asioista helposti omaksuttavaa ja vieläpä hauskaa tekstiä. Tieteen popularisointi on Suomessa lapsipuolen asiassa; "oikeat tutkijat" pitävät sitä lähinnä ajanhukkana, toimittajilla taas ei useinkaan ole riittävää asiantuntemusta tai resursseja tehdä sitä hyvin. Itse näen sen äärimmäisen tärkeänä tehtävänä (josta vaan kukaan ei vaan tunnu olevan kiinnostunut maksamaan sen vertaa, että sitä kannattaisi tehdä muuten kuin omaksi huvikseen - erinomaisia, lähinnä fysikaalisiin tieteisiin painottuneita (joskin ne genetiikkajututkin oli just eikä melkein, mistä hillittömät propsit!) juttuja voi muuten lukea esim. osoitteesta http://saarikowski.wordpress.com/ joskin seassa on myös kaikenlaista muutakin pulinaa). Funtsin aina noin kerran kolmessa kuukaudessa jonkinlaisen (luonnon)tiedeblogin aloittamista ihan vaan siksi, että olen niin kypsä suomenkielisen tiedeuutisoinnin tilaan, mutten ole ihan vakuuttunut aikani ja motivaationi riittävyydestä.

I am about halfway through watching the football games that were TIVO'd for me while I was overseas.

I came back from my trip sick to my stomach, as I reported last post. These games are only making me sicker.

Life is meaningless and has no joy but the Raiders.

I got home a little past midnight on Sunday night, after a long and gruelling trip from Casablanca. Three flights, changes in NYC/ JFK and Minneapolis/St. Paul, close to twenty-four hours in transit since the wake-up call came through in my Casablance hotel. I was pretty much a zombie by the time I stumbled off the last flight into Parris's loving arms, and a rotting zombie at that. After being oh-so-careful in Morocco -- not drinking the water, brushing the teeth with bottle water, avoiding uncooked food, etc -- I made the grievous error of eating at the McDonald's in the Minneapolis airport during our layover there, and came down with an nice all-American case of food poisoning. By the time I boarded my last flight my stomach felt as if I'd swallowed a lead bowling ball. It was the first time I'd eaten at a Mickey D's in a decade, and I hope that it's the last.

Anyway, the last day and a half I've spent mostly in bed or in the john, but I'm feeling a little better now. This is the first time I've felt strong enough to boot up my computer... where, of course, I found five hundred emails waiting.

The trip was great, and I hope to write more about it later, when I'm feeling stronger.

I have to say, though, I am not sure how many of these overseas trips are left in me. It's great when I get there, but air travel has just become SO exhausting and SO uncomfortable, especially when oceans are involved, that the mere thought of any more just now is daunting.
Where are the rocket planes that I was promised in the SF of my youth?

National Geographicin valokuvakisa 2009. Hottei shottei.