Christiana Talks About Stuff -

Chapter 8 of Nina Kimberly the Merciless

Nina Kimberly Chapter 8 is now online at www.ninakimberly.com and coming this weekend to www.podiobooks.com!

If you haven't been listening along, it's not too late to hear Nina's adventures from the beginning! Just pick one of the above links and check out chapter 1 to hear how it all got started! Or even just check out the pickle page!

In chapter 8, the party is finally out of the woods... Um, that's literally, not figuratively. It's time to head into town, but Tyrnon's not going to be happy about staying behind, and is that an arena in the distance?

Also, check out The Poddog Show this weekend to hear an exclusive Nina-related skit!

Also, make sure you sign up for the Nina Kimberly mailing list, and you'll get access to the Subscriber's Only area of the website, where you can check out some of the preliminary artwork that will soon be the new cover!

Finally, remember to check out King Francis's Livejournal, and send your questions for "Ask Francis!" to askFrancisIX@gmail.com!

Finally, I just wanted to thank you all for listening! Without you guys listening, I'm just a tree falling in the forest with no one there to hear me. Thanks!

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Posted by Christiana on Friday March 31, 2006 at 10:47am. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Speaking of cool stuff you should know about...

The music of Jonathan Coulton.

He writes geek songs. Funny ones!

He's a really talented singer/songwriter to begin with, but how many love songs have you ever heard about an evil genius singing to the girl he has kidnapped and is holding prisoner in his secret lair? Coulton's: "Skullcrusher Mountain" is just that sort of love song. It contains the lyric: "I made this half-pony-half monkey monster to please you."

Then there's the bittersweet lament of a sea monster, determined to stop destroying the pretty pretty ships that float above him in "I Crush Everything", which contains the lyric: "The dolphins are all phonies."

Then there's "Chiron Beta Prime", a Christmas greeting from a family in exile on an asteroid, where they sing "where we are working in a mine for our robot overlords... did I say overlords? I meant protectors."

And what makes this all even cooler is that he releases his songs under creative commons, which means you can listen and share them all you want for free. But hey, he's super-awesome, so if you like his songs, make sure you purchase some of his songs so he can keep putting out the awesome.

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Posted by Christiana on Thursday March 30, 2006 at 11:32am. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Collaborative Writing on Battlestar Galactica

I don't know if you have been watching the new Battlestar Galactica or not, but if not, you should seriously make an effort to catch up on it on DVD. It's the best science fiction television show in... Hmm, not sure I can think of a better one. (Firefly maybe, but I don't really compare the two to each other)

Anyway, if you have been watching, then I don't know if you've been listening to Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Podcast. (He's the creator and head writer of the show.) It's an excellent insight behind the scenes of the show, and I've really been enjoying it. (It was one of the first podcasts I ever listened to.)

But the reason I bring it up today is that, in lieu of a new episode to give commentary on, the most recent podcast presents a recording made at one of their writer's meetings, back when the episode "Scar" was in the script stage. I think it's a fascinating example of how effective collaborative writing can be when it's done with a group of talented people who share a good chemistry.

Neat stuff!

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Posted by Christiana on Thursday March 30, 2006 at 10:47am. 1 Comments 0 Trackbacks

*blinkblink* Umm...

A Monument to Pro-Life: A statue of a nude Britney Spears giving birth

o_0

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Posted by Christiana on Tuesday March 28, 2006 at 10:48am. 2 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Managing Multiple Projects

Mur Lafferty, over at I Should Be Writing, had an interesting podcast recently about how to manage multiple projects.

Now, I was interested in this subject right off the bat, because it's definitely something I've had (and still have) trouble with. Take my writing for example, I successfully finished my first novel, Nina Kimberly the Merciless, relatively easily. Which is not to say easily, but relatively so, compared to my subsequent projects.

Why is that? Well, it's not because I'm blocked. In fact, it's almost the opposite. With Nina, I had only the one idea that I was working on. The one project. So when I felt like writing, or wanted to do something creative, I knew what it should be. So I worked on Nina until I'd finished that first book, then the same for the first editing pass-through.

When the time came though to take on a new project, I've got too many! Right now, I have not one, not two, but three unfinished novels, and I'm intrigued and excited by all three! Not to mention my podcasts. The problem, however, is that I'm a writer that enjoys the result more than the process, and so the times that I really FEEL like writing are often fleeting. Unfortunately, with multiple projects, it suddenly makes it harder to get as deeply focused on one, because I'm always second-guessing which one I should work on. End result, I often give up without writing much on ANY of them. Definitely not what I want.

Anyway, in Mur's show, she mentioned a couple of strategies for juggling multiple projects. The first, is relatively simple, which is to break your tasks up into more manageable-sounding chunks. For example, instead of saying "Okay, I'm going to work on finishing Call It A Gift", I should say "I'm going to write 1000 words on Call It A Gift." Instead of saying, "I've got to finish the recording draft of Nina", I say "I've got to edit chapter 10."

Seems almost too simple to be effective, but hey, I'm going to give it a shot.

The other strategy she mentioned that I think I'm going to try is the "eat a frog" model. Namely, "If you eat a frog as soon as you wake up in the morning, everything else you do that day will seem pleasant and easy by comparison." In other words, you do the stuff that you don't want to do first, and then everything else seems fun. And not only that, but in my experience, lots of the things that we put off, (exercise, for example,) really aren't that bad if you just go ahead and do them instead of procrastinating forever and a day. For example, adding to one of my novels. I just need to make it a priority. Do it first, before the things that are extraneous. Odds are, I'll actually have fun doing it anyway, and plus, it'll get done!

Anyway, I just thought those were some interesting tips, and I'm going to try them out. I'll let you know how it goes.

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Posted by Christiana on Tuesday March 28, 2006 at 10:28am. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Thanks! ... I think...

No, this is a legitimate thanks, but it requires some explanation...

You see, I've been named an honorary "condom for the ears."

Lemme 'splain.

Eban Crawford does a great music podcast called Reaching for Lucidity. In it, he plays the best of the best of all the really great independent and "podsafe" music, themed based on the day of the week. Hard rock one day, mellow stuff the next, etc. 5 shows a week!

Anyway, you know those times when you hear a really awful, insipid song on the radio, and you just can't get it out of your head? Well, according to Eban, that is what is known as an STD, a Sonically Transmitted Disease. The cure is great independent music, but of course, the key is prevention! Thus, you need a "condum for your ears". Now Reaching for Lucidity is the original, but in today's show, he named me and my podcasts as an "honorary condum for the ears."

It's a good thing. ^_^

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Posted by Christiana on Tuesday March 28, 2006 at 10:05am. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

One word, sixty seconds... Go!

Ooh, this is kind of neat! www.OneWord.com

You click "Go" and it gives you the word of the day and a form in which to write anything and everything you can think of about that word. You have sixty seconds, and then when the time's up, you enter in your name and click post. You can then read all the other entries.

I thought it was pretty fun, and maybe could be useful as a little daily writing exercise, like stretching before you work out.

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Posted by Christiana on Monday March 27, 2006 at 2:44pm. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Hmm...

Remember that thing I said about work finally moving forward? Well, I head in there to, at long last, start testing and what should happen?

Mechanical failure.

Can't say more really, but man.

Ugh

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Posted by Christiana on Monday March 27, 2006 at 1:41pm. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

A good weekend

So I'm sitting here, Sunday evening, and I'm feeling good about my life right now.

I mean, I'm not completely where I want to be, but I'm happy with my direction.

This is true on a number of fronts. For example my weight loss attempt. (Just put up a new ep of my vidcast 50 Pounds, 6 Months, by the way). Now, I've actually not been seeing a lot of progress for over a month now, so why am I feeling good about it? Well, because I realized that I'm doing the right things and that the REAL goal is developing a healthier lifestyle, which I've been doing, regardless of whether the number on the scale is changing as quickly as I would like.

Then there's work. I've been in a holding pattern for a while, and now it's broken and I can actually move forward. Good stuff.

Then there's Nina Kimberly the Merciless. The response so far has been awesome. Lots of really great feedback from people and numbers growing every day. By the way, anyone who wants to help me out with that, you can do so by adding me to your favorites at Podcast Pickle, voting for me at Podcast Alley, and reviewing me on iTunes and Podiobooks.com!

Plus, I've been trying to increase my presence on my Livejournal and MySpace pages, and that's been a lot of fun so far. Getting to interact with a lot of really cool people.

Probably the most fun right now was putting together a Livejournal blog page for King Francis, one of my Nina Kimberly characters.

Then, there was the Pickle party last night, where a whole bunch of awesome people, linked only by their love of podcasting got together in a chat room and a live audio stream for a virtual party. Much fun and talking and laughing and drinking was had by all.

This morning, I got plenty of sleep, but got up early enough to go help out in my church's Sunday school class for the 2 year olds. They were awfully cute.

I had a good taco salad for lunch, chatted with some cool people on Skype (my Skype is christianaellis), got some podcast stuff done, and now I'm sitting here just thinking, I like where I'm at right now. Not perfect, but moving in the right direction.

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Posted by Christiana on Sunday March 26, 2006 at 7:29pm. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Podcast #62! Roommates, Survivor and Sopranos

Hey everybody, it's been a while, but show 61 is now live!

Or not "live" exactly, but online.

You can download the file directly (right-click to save), or subscribe to the feed.

Here's what we talk about...

(Click for detailed podcast notes!)

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Posted by Christiana on Sunday March 26, 2006 at 12:39am. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Oooooh!

Okay, I've posted about Julian Beever before, but he has new ones now, and his stuff is freakin sweet!

Check out one of the best sidewalk-drawings you'll ever see...

He's got more at his website!

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Posted by Christiana on Friday March 24, 2006 at 2:32pm. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Is it really Friday, or are you just teasing me?

I hope it's real, because I seriously need to catch up on some sleep.

Mike and I recorded a couple of podcasts-worth yesterday, and I'll try to get one of those up tonight, but I just couldn't stay up to do any more of it.

I've been more sleep-deprived than usual all week, but that's okay, because it's Friday, and I have good news to report on a couple of fronts.

1) Nina Kimberly the Merciless, my podcast audiobook is going very well. I'm loving it, and getting some great feedback on it, and it has a couple hundred listeners already! Plus, I've completed chapter 7 and it's now online! Thus meeting my 1 chapter a week target two weeks in a row. Go check it out! It's free to listen!

2) The Podcast Pickle party is tomorrow night! Have you ever thought to yourself, "Gosh, I'm a pretty big geek, but what could I do to become even geekier?" Answer: Attend a virtual party with a bunch of podcasters in a chatroom with a live audio feed. Hooray!

3) At the day job, I've finally gotten some signatures on a couple of documents that I've been waiting to get approved for months now! It's been really frustrating, but now that they are signed, I can actually move forward with my project! Huzzah!

4) I got to go to Kabuki, a neat Japanese restaurant for dinner on Wednesday. One of those places where you sit around the grill and the chef comes out and cooks your food in front of you with all sorts of fancy knife twirling and so on. Plus, yummy. ^_^

5) Umm... It's Friday.

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Posted by Christiana on Friday March 24, 2006 at 1:52pm. 3 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Newsflash: Daytime TV tied to poorer mental scores in elderly

Check it out.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older women who say talk shows and soap operas are their favorite TV programs tend to score more poorly on tests of memory, attention and other cognitive skills, researchers reported Monday.

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He said it's not possible to tell whether the programs somehow contribute to cognitive decline or whether women in the early stages of decline gravitate toward those shows. Preferences for daytime TV could also be a marker of a sedentary, homebound lifestyle, and research suggests that staying physically and socially active can help stave off mental decline.

But regardless of the reasons, a preference for talk shows and soaps "is a marker of something suspicious," Fogel said.

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"This doesn't mean 'Oprah' is bad for you," Fogel said. However, an older woman's fondness for the show could signal a possible problem, according to the researcher.

Read that again. Basically it's saying: Daytime TV doesn't rot your brain, but if you like it, your brain might be rotten.

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Posted by Christiana on Tuesday March 21, 2006 at 10:48pm. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg are cooler than you.

Don't worry, though. They're (much) cooler than me too.

Cooler in fact, than most of the planet. That's because of Spaced, and Shaun of the Dead.

Well, they haven't done much that we've been able to see for a while, except of course for this music video that Edgar directed: Bastardo (Simon has a cameo in it, as does Lucy Davis aka Dawn from the British The Office)

Now, however, they are starting to release a video diary about their next film: Hot Fuzz! (Watch the video and bask in the awesomeness!)

In other media news...

The first footage from Snakes on a Plane is online!

The first new episode of Southpark this season will feature: "The triumphant homecoming of school chef Jerome McElroy. While Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman are thrilled to have their old friend back, they notice that something about Chef seems different. When Chef's strange behavior starts getting him in trouble, the boys pull out all stops to save him." (No doubt made in response to Chef voice actor Isaac Hayes's decision to leave the show.)

UPDATE! Is it possible that Isaac Hayes didn't quit at all, but that someone else quit for him?

Alan Moore was apparently so upset with the film (scroll to the bottom) version of V for Vendetta that he asked to have his name removed from the credits.

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Posted by Christiana on Tuesday March 21, 2006 at 2:06pm. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Creative Self-Promotion

One of the things I've had on my mind recently is word-of-mouth marketing. More specifically, I've been trying to think of any and every way that I can spread the word about Nina Kimberly. I really think that the Internet is really starting to change the models of how things are advertised and marketed. All the networking and blogs and message boards and so on.

Anyway, many musicians have been putting free mp3's of their songs online for a long time now, simply as a way to get their music to as many different ears as possible, and often with the hope that the person will then order the whole album, or go to see them in concert or whatever. That's kind of what I'm doing with this podcast novel, of course, but that type of marketing is becoming a lot more common, and I think it's fantastic.

For example, Elizabeth Bear () is making the first chapter of her latest (upcoming) novel, Blood & Iron available online, with two additional chapters to come in April and May. Now she's an honest-to-goodness published novelist, and one whom I really enjoy. (Check out my review of her 1st published novel, Hammered.)

Now, this isn't just a plug for an author I like (though it is that, too), but I also just wanted to point it out as an example of a trend that I like in advertising/marketing. Namely, giving something, or a part of something, away for free in the hopes that it will attract an audience. Of course, coupons and such have been around for a long time, but seeing it apply to something like a novel is relatively new. Before, the most you might ever see is a brief excerpt in a magazine or something, which would limit you to people who are reading that magazine. Whereas by putting something online, theoretically you are only limited to people who use the Internet, which is a LOT of people. At which point, the only challenge becomes how to get the word out about your promotion! And a good way to do that, is to take part in social-networking-type things like live-journal. ;)

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Oh, and by the way, that first chapter of Blood and Iron is really good.

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Posted by Christiana on Monday March 20, 2006 at 3:04pm. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Movie Review: V for Vendetta

Housekeeping Note: I've started double-posting all of the blog entries for the last few days over at my livejournal site as well, and will probably continue to do that for now, but as things evolve, I will probably begin to use that site for my personal-blogging sorts of things, and this site more for podcast notes and announcements, etc.

Anyway...

V for Vendetta

Okay, I had been planning to see this movie anyway, but over the weekend it seemed like everyone was talking about it already and so I figured I just had to get out to the theater.

I haven't read the graphic novel, (though I've read The Watchmen, also by Alan Moore,) and so I had a general idea of what KIND of story I was in for, if not the specifics.

The movie is good, but not great. I like it on two levels really, but on only one of those is the movie as effective as it wants to be.

That first level, of course, is the more superficial level of "Does it look cool?"

Yes. It does. Very cool. All kinds of shadows and glinty knives and black and red and bathrooms with giant TV's in them. (Well only one of those, but it was cool, in a ridiculously over-the-top-narcissistic way.)

The fighting is cool, lots of evocative imagery, etc. It's a good looking film, which to some extent, isn't surprising, since it's brought to us by the Wachowski Brothers, most famous for the Matrix trilogy.

They've always been solid on the technical/directorial level, less so on the story level, so it's good that they're working with some top-notch (so I've been told) source material.

That brings me to the second level I referred to above. The film is "pretty good" on the story level, but I felt as though what I liked was the original material shining through a dirty lens. You can still see the broad strokes of what was there, but the texture is blurred a little bit, the motives become a little less nuanced, the ambiguity a little more black-and-white.

I could go into some specifics on that, but I won't. Instead, I'll refer you to this excellent discussion of the film/book. Warning: Complete spoilers (Thanks to Elizabeth Bear for pointing the way.) Basically, it seems to me that the film is all about ends versus means. The character of V could be a fearless revolutionary, or a warped, psychotic terrorist, depending on your point of view, and the story really made me think about a lot of things related to that. At what point do you draw the line between "La Resistance" and "Terrorists"? At what point does "security" become "oppression"? At what point does "tough love" become "sadism"? (By the way, for an amusing take on the Star Wars Universe, check out "A Different Point of View" over at Podiobooks.com. After subscribing to Nina Kimberly the Merciless, of course.)

I really enjoyed being provoked to think about all those things, but again, I felt like it was the source material doing the provoking, whereas the film seems a little more inclined to go ahead and choose an answer. Still, I have to give the film credit that the message was not totally obscured, because all those questions did still come through. A dirty lens is a hell of a lot better than nothing, but I think I'm going to go ahead and check out the original graphic novel too.

Posted by Christiana on Monday March 20, 2006 at 11:51am. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Really? Okay...

Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti

snagged from Ilona!

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Posted by Christiana on Sunday March 19, 2006 at 1:21pm. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Ego Filters and Self-Promotion

My God, it takes all the work out of googling yourself!

Just got an email on the mailing list for Podiobooks.com authors, and it contained some helpful little tools for self promotion / vanity searching!

The first: http://www.google.com/alerts

Essentially, you just go there (you may need a gmail sign-in), enter the search term you are interested in, and Google will email you whenever it finds new web content with your term in it!

So naturally, I signed up for both "Christiana Ellis" and "Nina Kimberly the Merciless". Since I only just signed up, I don't really have a good sense of how well it works yet, but heck if it isn't a cool idea.

You can do a similar thing at http://technorati.com/signup/
with "Watch List's" but I kinda knew about those already, just wasn't really using them effectively before.

In other news, I went ahead and recorded a new promo for Nina, (You can check it out right here: Nina Kimberly the Merciless promo!) and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

The numbers for it have been gradually building, and I tell you, watching the charts over at Podiobooks.com is a complete roller-coaster ride! Up-down-up-down!
"Whee / Eeek!"

So today, I think I'm going to try to go see "V for Vendetta", and I'll let you guys know how it goes.

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Posted by Christiana on Sunday March 19, 2006 at 1:11pm. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Special Dispensation for Corned Beef

Well, apparently, although Catholics are not supposed to eat meat on Fridays during Lent, Corned Beef on St. Patrick's Day is okay.

Most N.J. Catholics in the clear to eat corned beef on Friday

Mike McClutchy's religion says it's a sin to eat meat on St. Patrick's Day, and the 49-year-old state employee wasn't happy about it.

Then McClutchy found out in church that Newark Archbishop John Myers has granted a special dispensation to allow Catholics to eat meat on Friday, despite it being prohibited during Lent.

You know, I don't have anything against people who are Catholic, but some things about the Catholic faith have always seemed a bit strange to me. I mean, of course tradition and so on is important, as is wisdom passed down over hundreds of years, but some of what they call for just seems really strange to me. For example, the idea that, unless given special dispensation, eating meat on Friday is a mortal sin. In other words, just as serious as, say, murder.

Though I suppose all religions have their quirks that seem odd to people from the outside. I know there are questions that I would have a hard time answering about my own faith, and that ultimately, that's where faith really comes into it.

So, some Catholics have been given permission to have corned beef tomorrow. Though if you are Catholic, I would double-check with your own bishop, because it would sure suck to commit a mortal sin by accident because you didn't realize that you were out-of-bounds.

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Posted by Christiana on Thursday March 16, 2006 at 3:08pm. 3 Comments 0 Trackbacks

State of the Stuff

Jeez, just look at this place! Dust everywhere! You'd think I hadn't posted in a while or something.

Anyway, just thought I'd post here with a little update. Naturally, I've had a hard time for the last couple of weeks thinking of anything except Nina Kimberly the Merciless!

I should point out, by the way, that it's doing relatively well over on the Podiobooks.com charts already. Been on the Top 10 downloads of the day since it launched there, and as of this writing, it's number 5 on the Top Rated Podiobooks! (That is based, by the way on ratings given right here. *wink wink*) Of course, don't give me a rating if you haven't listened, and if you have, give me an honest one. But I'm aching for feedback here! I've gotten some great feedback already, by the way, but my heart is a bottomless hole, and I'm always hungry for more.

Anyway, I'm planning on releasing chapter 6 either tonight or tomorrow, and then over the weekend, I'm going to start adding some more extra content to ninakimberly.com.

Also, you all may have noticed no Survivor posts for a couple of weeks. Well, that's been part business and part laziness. I'll catch up, I promise!

On other fronts, last weekend was the second episode of Hey, want to watch a movie? in which Mike and I were joined by The Right Reverend Chumley from Cult of UHF and Shelly from Shelly's Podcast in watching Top Gun!

It was a rousing success in terms of how much fun it was. The number of downloads was a little disappointing so far, only based on the huge number there had been for the first episode. Hmm, not sure why.

Anyway, it was enough fun that I'm sure we'll do it again. Heck, it's worth it if nobody listens and we're just having fun watching movies!

I've also been trying to become a little more disciplined with my exercising and eating habits for the last week or so. I'll try to keep everyone posted on that, but right now, I'm fairly significantly behind where I want to be on my weight loss goals. BUT... that by no means should suggest that I'm giving up, or even that I do not remain optimistic. It just means I need to get back to work!

Speaking of work, I'm doing okay there too, but my current project is starting to come towards the end. Hopefully we'll get more stuff here in a timely fashion! Once again, however, I remain optimistic.

The last thing I want to mention is that I finally did some serious cleaning in my apartment over the weekend. I didn't finish, but I took a big chunk out of it, and though that may not seem like a big deal to any of you, it has made a big difference to me. I had let my place get pretty messy. So messy that I was really starting to feel bad about it, and now that I've made it much cleaner, I can already just tell a difference in how I feel when I'm sitting at home. I feel less stressed!

So of course, I take the stress that I was feeling about that, and turn it to something more productive, like thinking of any and every way that I can possibly spread the word about Nina Kimberly the Merciless! (Please, tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell everybody! Thanks!)

I'll try to post a little more regularly too.

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Posted by Christiana on Thursday March 16, 2006 at 2:46pm. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Nina lives!

She's on a mission... To kill the man who loves her...

Why?

Because he's an idiot.

Nina Kimberly the Merciless is the story of a teenage barbarian princess who must rid herself of an obnoxious royal suitor, replace him with a hero, and then grow into her destiny as a...

Well, that she hasn't decided yet.

Chapters 1 through 5 are already online, and you can find them at www.ninakimberly.com, or just subscribe to the feed!

And Nina Kimberly The Merciless is now available at Podiobooks.com!

Posted by Christiana on Friday March 10, 2006 at 10:38am. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Crash stole the election!!!1! Um, I mean the Oscar!!!1!

See, this explains everything.

I propose that we impeach Paul Haggis.

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Posted by Christiana on Friday March 10, 2006 at 7:55am. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Do you ever feel like you're going crazy?

...

Um, that's all.

UPDATE!

Gee, do you think it would help if I finally remembered to refill my thyroid medicine after missing three days worth?

Posted by Christiana on Tuesday March 7, 2006 at 4:07pm. 1 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Podcast #61: More Oscar Talk

Hey everybody!

#61 is up, in which Mike and I shared some last-minute Oscar-talk just before the awards were broadcast.

Download the mp3 file, subscribe to the feed or listen on the Pickle Player!

(Click for detailed podcast notes...)

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Posted by Christiana on Tuesday March 7, 2006 at 8:15am. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Surreal Technology News of the Month

Check this out... o_O

Robotic 'pack mule' displays stunning reflexes

A nimble, four-legged robot is so surefooted it can recover its balance even after being given a hefty kick. The machine, which moves like a cross between a goat and a pantomime horse, is being developed as a robotic pack mule for the US military.

BigDog is described by its developers Boston Dynamics as “the most advanced quadruped robot on Earth”. The company have released a new video of the robot negotiating steep slopes, crossing rocky ground and dealing with the sharp kick. View the impressive clip here (28MB Windows media file).

Link thanks to Dean's World
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Posted by Christiana on Monday March 6, 2006 at 4:52pm. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

A brief clarification...

I'll have more to say about this when I post show #61 tonight, but I want to clarify my last "announcement" just a little bit.

The harshness of my statement "Crash sucked" was created out of anger, based on my feeling that an undeserving film had won best picture over one that I thought truly worthy.

So, while I will not apologize for disliking the film, (and will go into more detail why in show #61), I will apologize to anyone who felt insulted by my tone. It was not my intention to disrespect anyone who did like the film, only to disagree.

(More detail tonight when I post #61)

Talking About Stuff, with Mike and Christiana

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