ewen_cluney.txt

That's partly just because they've attached their vision of masculinity to their religion, declaring John Wayne style bravado to be divinely ordained. The lack of self-examination helps explain why they were such huge fans of Oliver North.

I'm about halfway through Jesus and John Wayne, and it's striking how the evangelicals chronicles are just so certain that their version of masculinity is necessary to civilization and under attack, and the idea of empirically demonstrating any such thing clearly never crossed their minds at all.

A glossy gray mug and saucer, both made with precise, straight lines. They sit next to a small glass jar of "Umami Salt," which has a brown color from the dried mushroom and black garlic in it.

I've continued messing around finding stuff to set up my desk at work. Today I drove up to Oakland to buy an elegant Hasami Porcelain mug and saucer from Umami Mart (and ended up getting a thing of their "Umami Salt" as well). It's a really nice little shop!

umamimart.com

I’ve given it stuff I’ve written and had it blatantly get things wrong and make up details.

YouTube video by Oliver the Egoist Penda's Fen (1974) HD

I dunno what exactly I just watched, but I put on Penda's Fen, part of a BBC series of plays, and it was strange and amazing, sort of a surreal exploration of England's clashing religious traditions. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghu0...

Big thanks to @Star12Mt@masto.nyc over on Mastodon for pointing me to Heroism as a Global Phenomenon in Contemporary Culture (which is free for Kindle right now BTW).

library.oapen.org/bitstream/ha...

I realized I really want a scholarly book that explores how notions of heroism differ between cultures and over history, and if that does exist I'm having a hell of a time finding it.

OTOH I still have no idea what the screenwriter thought Silver Surfer's powers were actually supposed to be, and I suspect he didn't know either.

So like, the novelization of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer isn't _good_, but it's less bad than the movie mainly because its emotional beats are more believable. When Sue (temporarily) dies, it actually feels like Reed is losing the love of his life.

a flag on top of a snow covered hill with the word thants below it ALT: a flag on top of a snow covered hill with the word thants below it

Edgratulations

A little figure of Cirno from Touhou, sitting on my coffee table next to my MacBook.

At work I'm switching to a new team that works out of an office (with free food and a pay raise), so naturally I went to Daiso to get some stuff to clutter my new desk with. It turns out they have some Touhou stuff, and now I have a little ⑨baka for decor.

The absolute worst beverage I've ever had was a ginger CBD soda. Just vile.

It's ITC Souvenir; I picked it because it's the closest I could find to the font used in the Catwoman (2004) novelization lol.

Doug was yanked out of his thoughts by the alarm on his watch. It was time to head to work. Or the work that the world at large thought was legitimate. He washed his face, applied a little Axe Body Spray, and changed his clothes. In the mirror he saw himself, a 25-year-old white guy with spiky blond hair, dark blue eyes, and a natural smirk. It had gotten him punched a few times, but some people just couldn’t handle how awesome he was. At the door he put on his headphones and grabbed his keys, wallet, cellphone, and skateboard. He was almost out the door before he went back to the minifridge and grabbed a Monster Energy to drink on the way. It kicked like a mule and tasted like candy and window cleaner, and he was totally addicted.

Well that was something I'm not going to do again. I drink way too much Red Bull, but Monster Energy is like the name, in a bad way.

I'm laying it on thick in the novel, but I'm purposely trying to make it like a painfully 2004 movie novelization.

Saw someone say they used to be a "died in the wall Catholic," like there was a cask of Amontillado at the cathedral.

A couple times in the past I've described a potion a character tried as tasting like it has a hint of Windex, and unfortunately now I know what that's actually like.

A close up of Monkey (a svelte tortie cat) rubbing the side of her head against the corner of my white Ikea coffee table.

Monkey's favorites:
1. My roommate
2. Me
3. This corner of the coffee table

A black and green 16-oz. can of original flavor Zero Sugar Monster Energy.

Possibly the worst thing I've tried as research for a novel.

Other notable things I've tried include:
* Catnip tea
* Yaupon tea
* Visiting Roswell, NM
* Making panna cotta

“I don’t like him either but calm down, please.”

01: There is a woman facing you with a confident expression. She has blond hair, messy twin pigtails, a small angel wing coming off the right side of her head, and a devil horn coming off the left. She has a big angel wing coming off the left side of her back, and a devil wing coming off the right. Her right eye is teal and has an 'X' pattern on the pupil, whereas her right eye is indigo and has a circle pattern on the pupil. She wears a pink neckerchief, and a tight sleeveless top that's blue on the top half and dark purple on the bottom. She also has disconnected sleeves, so her shoulders are still visible. She says "HEY!! It's ME, you're OLD OC. Haven't drawn ME in a while, HAVE YA'?" 02: She puts up her hands in front of her, as if you say 'stop it'. She has big, robotic hands. She says "No no, IT'S OKAY! Let's be real, my design is pretty amateurish HAHA" 03: She turns a bit to the side, and adopts a more sympathetic expression, but keeps looking you in the eyes. She says "But I want you to know that I've been there all this time. I've watched you grow. And you've grown SO much." 04: Closeup of her face as her confident expression returns. She tilts her head and gives you a wink. "Proud of ya', kid."

Me deciding that my dumb collection of movie novelizations needs just *one* more, namely a physical copy of the novelization of Hackers (1995) by David Bischoff.

Temu version of Jim Carrey as Doctor Robotnik

Writing in the style of a bad movie novelization is fun and weird because like apparently it was Thomas Jefferson who said "The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do," but this is a genre where the usual response is "Nah, let's do the opposite of that."

I really want him to have to put up with a guy who follows him around and just yells “What are you TALKING about?!” every time he does something like that.

The tag on a pair of cargo shorts, which calls them "ESSENTIAL CARGO SHORTS"

These cargo shorts give you +3 to your Essence stat.

Star Trek The Next Generation scene. We're in a darkly lit engineering near the warp core. Worf is in uniform and walking alongside the cute lil safety railing. He looks focused and intense. Closed caption reads, "Living among these humans has sucked."

Side-by-side, the novelizations of Catwoman, Suicide Squad, and Blazing Saddles!

YES.

Ron Swanson refuses to register to vote because he doesn’t want the government to have his information.

The cover of Ant-Man: The Junior Novel, which has the Ant-Man and Marvel logos, plus captions reading "Includes 8 Pages of Color Photos!" and "Inspired by the Film!" all on top of a close-up of Ant-Man's helmet.

I'm kind of fascinated by this concept of "The Junior Novel" of a superhero movie. I was wondering how they'd fit the plot of Ant-Man into 144 pages of large print made for elementary school kids, and the answer is they didn't. The book basically only covers the movie's first act.

Paperback novelizations of The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Men in Black, and The Empire Strikes Back.

Just a little obsessed with questionable movie novelizations now.