Bleeding Fiction

Right. Back from my vacation-ish thing. Not much point in re-capping what I did, since I saw a good portion of you while I was in that there New York Metropolitan Area.

Also, I didn't do much that was unique. Fun, sure. But not unique. It was the usual round of restaurants and bars, staying out drinking and eating and talking to all hours of the night. I got to see almost everyone I expected to and even a few folks who popped up out of nowhere and took me by surprise. Good stuff.

Some highlights of the trip:

House of Flying Daggers: Cool, but not as cool as Hero. It was more of a "standard fare" of wuxia movie than something with a huge amount of style. Also, some of the plot twists, while leading to a cool climax, were a little hard to stomach of believe.

Phantom of the Opera: I hate seeing movies with my parents, because they do things like talk through them. Phantom was visually spectacular, the girl who played Christine was beyond belief and Minnie Driver Rocked. I was disappointed in much of the characterization of the Phantom himself and at the deletion of a few of Raoul's lines. Overall, very worthwhile but I preferred the version I've seen on stage so many times.

Gifts: I would really rather my parents didn't get me gifts anymore, but if they're going to, they could've done worse than they did this year. They got me an iPod! A 40G iPod! Woo hoo! Also, they got me the first two volumes of the collected Peanuts, which may actually be cooler than the iPod. I love Peanuts and the first two volumes, filled with things I've never seen before, strips that are so different but still so identifiably Peanuts, are just beyond belief.

Surface Area: My parents don't really believe in flat surfaces. If they see something flat, they feel an inexplicable need to make it bumpy. As a result, their furniture is draped over with small statues, piled decorative boxes, plants and wicker. This makes it very hard for people like me to do things like put our wallets, keys, etc. down anywhere when we go to sleep at night.

Furniture: I bought a desk while I was away, through a mail-order catalog. Also, a bookshelf, through Ikea.com. These things should be here shortly. Yay!

Writing: I didn't write as much as I planned to. I didn't fall far flat, though. I wrote one short story, outlined a second, wrote a half-dozen Fables and took copious notes for two comic proposals (the only thing keeping me from writing the proposals themselves being that I've no clue what one looks like or is supposed to go in to one and couldn't find said information with the resources I had to hand).

And that's the most of it. I had a good trip, overall, and was happy to see everyone, but I'm also happy to be back. I missed having my own space, I missed defining my own schedule to do simple things (like, say, shower) and I missed the atmosphere of (as a few folks insisted on calling it) the Pacific Northwest.

Now, back to my regularly scheduled life.