So this is a representation of my novel in a format that correlates the frequency of a word to the relative size it is displayed below. Pretty cool, right?!

Chapter 3 is rolling its way through the fields of 8000 words. Hip-hip hooray!

around away bodies cart coming didn dogs don enough eyes face feel felt flashlight found getting gone gray ground head heard help henry kate katie lawson light ll looked man maybe mine missing nothing pointed quickly rain re really shined something sound spaceman think thought town turned ve walking weather

created at TagCrowd.com

Nanowrimo Summary

Stolen from Tom, but then expanded a little.
For those that don't know, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) encourages participants to write a 50,000 word story in the month of November every year. Here are my works produced so far:

2005:
Title: Wait For It
Genre: Sci-Fi Mystery
100% finished
Breif Summary: First complete nano! George Balds lives in a future where females and males are seperated in society for logistical reasons and he's on the wrong side of the fence. What happens when he discovers a conspiracy by the men of this brave new world to do something secretive to the women? He runs home to mommy, of course.

2006:
Title: Gryphen
Genre: Sci-Fi
100% finished
Breif Summary: Didn't actually finish this in one month, but I liked it enough to actually finish. John is a young teen boy... and in a coma. His life becomes one long dream sequence, which all spiral into one incohesive mess. Will he ever wake up? Spoiler alert: yes, he will. But that's not the end.

2007:
Title: So You're Attractive, Now What?
Genre: Teen Comedy
100% finished
Breif Summary: Oh god I will never write about teenagers again. This was painful. Wrote 19 thousand words on the last day to finish it. Basically teens at a high school go through their boring everyday lives and there is teen drama and jokes during lunch period.

2008:
Title: 40, 25, 6 OR 7
Genre: Scif-Fi Mystery Horror
70% finished
Breif Summary: All the ingredients for an instant classic: An isolated island society, a canibal killer, spys, spaceships (but not really), I think my first novel that involves a character going online! children abducted by monsters! Gangs that hideout on a pier! A love story that begins in a bar! A title full of nonsense numbers! Oh, and vampires. This was me pre-Twilight, when I could actually write about such things. PS the love story has nothing to do with the vampires, thank god.

2009:
Who the heck knows? Not me!

Videobloggery: Chris Recommends...

After taking a brief vacation (forgetting about this site) here is the latest videobloggery.



I also ended up buying that car I talked about a while ago... there should be pictures of it below



I think it's really got potential- a really 'fair' Fairlady if you will :/
Virtually no rust, responsive 2.8 liter engine replacing the original 2.4, factory tranny swapped with a later, 5-speed version. My only two concerns about it currently are the brakes feel dull and the reverse lights don't work- most likely wiring problems. But besides that, a lovely car. It smells like gas and makes noise from the engine like a proper car, not the muffler. More on this later.

Time To Talk Who

New videobloggery



convince me to get a mac or a pc. I will listen to everyone, since I know nothing about computers myself!

2(60)Z or Not 2(60)Z?

SO!



I have the opportunity to purchase the direct offspring car of the great 240Z: namely, a 1974 Datsun (though not the particular one shown here. Same color, but kinda junky). And I am having a tough time making the decision to make the final cut. Will I buy it? Will I not? Will the answer be clearer after I weigh the pros and cons in this entry?



PROS:

Aesthetically pleasing. Look at that car and tell me that it looks like just another car. The 60's-70's produced new shapes for autos, redefining how outrageous, how fashionable, or how streamline a car could look. The 240 was called the 'poor mans Porsche when it was around in 1969, and it the body style is reminiscent of the old Dinos and 944's. And who's going to argue with those cars?

Pricing. Alright, while older cars absorb money like a sponge composed of black holes, let's look in the immediate future. A) The price offered for the car with a parts car is $2200. That could go down to maybe $2000, but it's not likely to. Meanwhile, a desperate young man on craigslist has a slew of 260 parts. He has been trying to sell them for quite some time now, so perhaps he is getting desperate enough to part with just the ones I'm interested in (carbs, badges, carpeting, mirrors, odd ends, etc.) for $1000 or so. So I think I would be set for all the major parts for approximately $3000.

Insurance: Older car, no Porsche insurance, good driver record. I have not checked, but I figure it would be more or less manageable.

Purpose: This car is not something I will want to drive in the winter. It is not something I want to take to the track. This is something I would like to buy, own, operate, maintain, and enjoy through youthful independence. Yes, it is a selfish, frivolous projection of my doubts concerning my own independence and I feel like it will prove something while I know objectively it is silly and illogical for me to think so. I want it to be unique, and see that without me, it would not be there.

and... Also, I feel like I've reached a limit to what I can teach myself about auto-mechanics without a car to work on. Though I suppose I could say I was looking for older cars to buy because their systems are more basic and I am frightened of the black plastic boxes that are in modern cars, I'd be lying if I denied that I just think modern cars all look cheap.





CONS: (again, above pic is NOT the exact car I'm looking at)

Big Question:
Do I have the ability to fix the car? Is experience key in this kind of a fix-up? Will I need outside expertise from a Z specialist? How much can I learn straight out of a book? What kind of skill level will I find I have/ how complex can I repair this car? Can I clean a carburetor? Can I rewire the ignition? Can I do a full transmission swap?

Transportation: The only workspace I have available right now is on Cape Cod. So the car (and the parts car) would need to be shipped about 70-80 miles. I hear tell that would be $300 or so, probably more. That doesn't sound too great. Plus, how will Cape Cod air (vv salty) effect repairs, and how long do I plan to keep it there?

Future Parts: If I end up needing a part that can't be found in Tewksbury or in the parts car, I'm going to be stuck with online stores. A) foreign car parts and B) vintage car parts are expensive. It's a sellers marker. Alternatively, any parts I don't need from the parts car will be good to sell for money too.

Will it Run? A 35 year old car that doesn't run right now seems like a bad buy. If it does run, how well will it run? How much maintenance will it take to keep running? The owner of the Z asked me while pitching the car to me 'how many of these things you see on the road?' and while the answer is a resounding 'None' is that because they are awesome or they are all hunks of rust unable to pass an inspection?

Tools: A simple auto mechanic's toolbox can have well over $1000 worth of special ratchets and clamps in it. First step here is to figure out what exactly I would need special for the Z. Already I have a Z mechanic's guide in the mail coming to me to answer these questions.


CONCLUSION
Alright, so this helped a little. I notice that all the pros are delcarations (while not always facts) while the cons are commonly inquisitions. Assuming all my con questions are answered 'for worse' I would not buy this car. But if two or three were answered 'for better' I think I would do it. Which ones count? The keeping it running one is high up there, but so are cost of special tools. I think how much can I learn from a book is the #1 question right now. So I'll try and hold off a sale until I get that manual.

Bones: Good?

From the few episodes I've seen (disc 1 of season 1) I got mixed feelings about the show Bones, which I started watching last week.

Oh, right. Hello there. Yup, I'm alive.

Back to Bones. Witty! Smart! A Sexed-up CSI! These descriptions on the back of the box seriously discouraged me from buying it, but Target's sale pricing and David Boreannaz's coy smile on the cover got me over that speed bump easily enough.

The pilot was....okaaaaay. I suppose. But I'm happy to say that so far no episode has repeated the oh-so-terrible effects on the holographic projector from the pilot, not has the music been so awkwardly placed. I'd like to imagine that the season really starts at the 2nd episode. Then you could imagine a much more entertaining backstory in which an anthropologist and an FBI ex-sniper are working together.
Plot wise, it's your basic crime drama serial episode-by-episode. Victim found dead, body is analysed, very suspicious person found, later discovered to not be the murderer (I like to think of this as the Scooby-Doo suspect), and later they discover the killer is one of the few people they questioned before. The crimes so in the first six episodes are creative enough, but then again if they weren't, I doubt it would be a show.

I like the characters, with sometimes nerdy humor; sometimes just watching Brennan be a terrible people person is funny too. I like the typical genius grad student, the other scientists that work at the Jeffersonian, and I tend to think all the supporting characters in each episode are regularly well done. Music, like I said, gets better after the pilot. Besides that, I guess the main reason why I like the show so far is it want to entertain/intrigue you thoroughly through each episode, and I think it does that well enough.

I'll post another review probably after I finish the first season. If anyone has seen the show and would like to voice their opinion, feel free to do so in comments!

Twilight Update:

In Tawm's last video, he doled out part 1 of a multi-part punishment for skipping videobloggery for so long. So, I had to go to a bookstore and buy a copy of Twilight. Weee!

While buying it, I overheard some people (females) talking about the book agreeing that 'yeah, it's just like Harry Potter; [They] liked the book, but the movie was simply terrible.' Well, I thought. I liked the HP books and loathed the movies- maybe this won't be so bad. (Clarification: i have neither seen nor read Twilight, my lack of logic here was merely desperation)
But I was wrong. Clearly.

Twilight summed up in about 10 seconds (if you are a quick reader) can be found at Hijinks Ensue in their parody of a focus group concerning the upcoming Buffy movie. I almost agree with Joel, Twilight is season 1 of Buffy (the least appealling season in my opinion, too!) but with a twist: it is painful for me to read. Two points in the book: beginnings of chapter 11 and 13, I had to drop the book and walk away. I'd come back later and try to read the same page, but I'd get two sentences in and give up again. It seems Meyer knows something dark and dangerous, but nothing to do with vampires; it's more to do with the craft of weaponizing words into a book this potent.

But maybe it's less than that. A lot less, actually. Granted, when I start a book I don't like, I don't read it. Undoubtably, this book is recieving much unwanton critizism because it's the first book I've been forced to read all the way through since high school English. Maybe if you liked the first season of Buffy you would like this book. I'll try and save any real comments about the book for after I finish- I just needed to get my displeasure out.

Videobloggery: Terminated

No, the Videobloggery is not terminated. It's just a 'review' (if you can call it that) of the Terminator movie.
Seeing as how June is already both upon me and my comic only got 2 pages inked, I'll extend my thing-a-month for one more month. I have something different planned for July, though. If things work out the way I plan, I could be getting myself into a lot of trouble that may amuse onlookers. But more on that next month.

Videobloggery: Hobo Chris Beaten by Vista

Don't worry. Real footage from this weekend will certainly make its way to other videobloggeries, but for now, while I am without my own computer, you must deal with a lame slide-show-esque montage and my ethereal voice.

And I'm not kidding when I say that my USB streaming video isn't supported by Vista- look, it's even there at the bottom in big red letters! So, I guess now, when I was just starting to accept vista a little, it is back down to terrible on my scale.

NOT Videobloggery: Spider Train

I was pretty tired last night, but I wanted to see how well my camera recorded music. I found out that is doesn't do this very well, but I still finished editing this song, 'Spider Train'



I made the guitar part first, then thought, 'what does this sound like? It sounds both silly and spooky at the same time.' And so, from that train of thought I eventually thought of the word 'spider train' Maybe once I get my actual recording equipment from home I can post this as an audio-only good quality (and more though-out lyrics than just ad libbed ones) post. But for now, I know not a lot of people come here, so I'll put it up.

Comic update: page 2

Tomorrow looks like it could be pretty busy, so in case I don't put up anything else I promised, I am offering what I have so far on page 2 of the comic as a compromise. Only half-inked with out dialogue and no detail, but at least you know I have been working on something between work and sleeping. Come to think of it, this is more for me than it is for you.

Song, Com. and T1

Sorry, the song isn't up yet, but you'll be happy to know that it has a name, refrain and bridge, and lyrics are coming along nicely. So look for that, probably tomorrow.

In the meantime, I have been working on the comic. Since my last update, I've done 1 more concept page (page 7), 1 more pencil-sketched page, and I'm starting to ink 2 pages at the same time (2 and 3). Maybe those 2 will be up by the weekend.

And I need to rant about this car I just found.
Sorry, just skip it if you don't care.



The Caparo T1 (above) instantly reminded me of the Ariel Atom. I know I'm late to the game, and the T1 is practically history, but as far as I know probably no one who reads this would know that. Made to be a street-legal F1 car (!!!) the T1 was designed by prestigious ex-McClaren engineers working carefully to fulfill the British Single Vehicle Approval Scheme while at the same time beefing up the engine to create the unheard-of 2.5 sec 0-60mph acceleration. The overall power of this tiny toy is 1000bhp/tonne.

While watching the performance of this car on Top Gear (typically the where I get interested in new cars), it seemed like everything expected in a super-lightweight-insanely powerful car: loads of acceleration and kicking-out back wheels. It seemed like all the Car-nirvana created in the Atom's perfect weight-to-power ratio was gone, so I was unimpressed. The handling was reported as, and looked on camera to be, dramatically poor. Then they timed it around the track. Nearly 10 seconds faster than the Atom. 8 seconds faster than the CCX! There is no equivalent in any other sport I can think of that redefines 'the fastest' like this did.

Naturally, I was upset about how easily all my track favorites had fallen to this newbie, so I focused on the bad stuff: such as how it is a 2-seater F1 car. Who has ever heard of that? What passenger would be crazy enough to sit in the belly of a 200-mph monster while not having any control over it? But because some people would like that, I could also focus on the T1's bad history with accidents. For example, it once burst into flames while being tested on the TV show Fifth Gear and while Clarkson was driving it the floor panel started falling off. Also two incidences of the throttle sticking open have been reported while the car was being tested. So it is like an F1 car in the fact that is needs a pit crew to maintain it every few laps.

It seems hard to believe that and T1's could be out there in the world right now, seeing both how they cost half a million and they tend to kill themselves instantly, but something about this car made me very emotional, like 'a good book,' so I guess at the very least it was 'written' brilliantly.

Videobloggery: Anathem Review

Tom posted a video last week. Go see it, then:



And I'm still chipping away at Sara's video in viewership. As of this morning I'm down by 375 views. Given that we never set a time limit on this contest, I feel pretty confident that even though I'm losing, I'm winning.

I'm working on a song that should go here in the next two days. Unfortunately I don't have my recording equipment with me, so it'll have to be video-recorded music. Ugh.

Videobloggery: Extremism

Tawm's response to my 'bwat' list

And my latest video:



Click on the video to follow it to Youtube and subscribe, rate or comment.

And while you're in a Youtube mood, check out my random video , which is not a videobloggery episode, but just something I made a while ago and I am trying to get more views than a friend on this video- I am only 558 behind now, woo! That's up quite a bit from 633 behind last week!

Comic is on!

So I finished the first page of the comic I'm working on for my thing-a-month in May, and it took much more work than I thought.
I thought I'd share the whole construction of page 1, click on the pictures to see them full-size.

First I thought up the page layout, and doodled it really roughly about 1/5 the size it would end up as.


Then I made a full-size sketch with pencil by hand.


Finally, I scanned it into the computer and began inking via tablet. I've never done this before, so it was a really long process, and took 2 days of on-and-off work to complete this step. Here's the final product: enjoy!


At this rate, there's no way I can do a complete comic during only May, but I'll keep trying. I've already got the first 6 pages in the 1/5th concept stage, and I've done the first three of those in full-size pencil sketches. Comments?

Done with Dexter

#1) I'm in a contest with my friend, Sara, for getting more views on Youtube. Watch my video, and pass it on like a virus! I know it stinks, but in the spirit of competition, quantity beats quality! So watch it and pass it on. Only 633 more views to tie it up!

#2) Maybe you've seen or heard of Showtime's Dexter series; the story of an easy-to-love serial killer in Miami. The show was based on the book series by Jeff Lindsay, and I thought the show was clever, so I sought out the first two books.

The first book, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, followed the 1st season for a while, so I can't review it without a fair amount of bias, since knowing the end of mystery book does take away the body of it. But I think I can review the second, Dearly Devoted Dexter fairly fairly.

No spoilers, though.

Written very much like the first book, the second in this series is humorous, dark, but with a simplistic narrative style, making a noticably different character out of Dexter than Showtime's. Throughout the story, Dexter is pent-up and restless, and it really made me feel restless too. When was the action going to start up? Why was there only 1 death from our favorite serial killer in this story? It's true that in this volume, Dexter is trying to appear as normal as possible to throw off people's suspicions about him, but the combination of him doing it so well for so long and his antagonist's lack of evidence against him made this situation boring and seemingly drawn-out. The more action-y parts of the book involve another serial killer, whom we know little about and don't even meet until the final few pages, much like in the last book. Maybe if this part was a little more spread-out, I would have enjoyed the book more.

The story was immersive enough for me to speed through it in 3 days of commuter-reading, though. Probably the quickest 300-page read I've had since the Drawing of the 3, by Steven King. I liked the main character enough (which suprised me when I saw the show and read the first book, but seemed normal to me by now) but was annoyed when he failed to understand basic concpets on one page, and then on the next page quickly solve a murder case that had a federal agent baffled. Dexter is finally free to kill again in the final 2 pages of the book, which makes me think the 3rd installment would be a better read, but neither of the first 2 books got me as interested as the show did. I'll look at the 3rd book before I let go of this series, but honestly I'm much more excited about season 4 coming out later this year.

#PS) Next post I plan on my thing-a-month update. Look out for a new videobloggery by this Sunday, too!

Karma

It has taken me exactly 19 weeks, but something finally clicked today: I think I like the Fisker Karma[see below, left]. When I woke up on Christmas morning, reached into my stocking and saw the Karma in a magazine article, I was not impressed. Electric car, fish-like features (reminds me of the derranged Mitsuoka Orochi: seen below, right), "American-made", and called a 'premium-performance' hybrid. It was impressive that the combination didn't make me tear out the article and throw it on the yule log, but I've started to come around.




I admit I am a little skeptical because of all the drama that has been happening with the Tesla Roadster (see below). Drama which, in fact, had decided to involve suing the makers of the Karma for stolen technology. The Tesla got high reviews and several prestigious awards in the category of being the Best Green Sports Car, but I for every award I felt less impressed, as there was no competition. Performance was good as well, with reviewers raving about its massive acceleration and top speed of 125mph, not to mention the absurd equivalent mileage (well over 100mpg). But I had also heard that with aggressive driving, the driving range drops laughably low, so it while it can have the performance of it's less green cousin, the Elise, it can't be the track toy it's built to compete against. So with the track option closed, it becomes a road car. But a road car with two seats and a pricetag over $100,000. So now it's a car that simply shows off your status as a rich, eco-concious car enthusiast who likes to . Not the most terrible thing for a car to be, but it's unfortunate to be limited to this, and I don't think that such a car should be considered an award-winner.



So the Karma. Back to that. An American car manufacturer that puts its cars together in Europe (just double-checked for exact location: Finland??) did cause me to raise an eyebrow, but not in intrest. Close comparisions to the Tesla's numbers didn't impress me- about 100mpg, top speed 125, 0-60 was 2.1sec slower than the Roadster, but ooh, what was this? an impressive $20K was cut off the price tag very neatly. I did like that. But the Karma was a very different animal, indeed, because it did not pretend to be a track car- 4 doors and all, this was a called a luxury sports sedan. Now the $80K price tag makes sense, but consider the comparison: the Karma fit roughly into the niche the Tesla market had controlled, but now some in-the-money leftys could save some money and bring their friends around on the town. Not too shabby for a sedan. I had never really understood the concept of a luxury sedan before, and I guess I still don't, but this car started to appeal to me.

But what really excites me about this car is the response it got from Tesla. 5 months after the Karma was revealed, Tesla announced their plans to make their own electric sports-sedan, and for only $50K this time! Fisker has actually started a ball rolling in the hybrid/electric/green/sport/luxury/coupe/sedan market, where the game had long been consiting of one player, scoring infrequently. While hybrids have been picking up speed (literally) in the average sedan market, I think this development will start to perk up the interest in the rest of the car enthusiast world.

Whew! Did I really write that much? I was hoping I could review the book I read today, but looks like it's pretty crowded already. Next time!

Start Your Engines!

Well, I'd like this to start off spectacularly, and what better way than with a pretty picture?

So now that ElecTranio has been officially initiated Italiano-style, I have to say that I plan on using this rather selfishly. Yes, I am going to use a blog primarily as a tool for self-motivation. Of all the things I've seen people use their blogs as, I think this is the most productive and benificial, but sacrifices user enjoyment. So for that part, I think I'll dedicate the Videobloggery segments.

Speaking of Videobloggery, check out latest video, although I don't like it that much. If anything, the vlogs will get more entertaining and this place will suck up all the suck to where it can be constructive.


Prepare to accompany me in things both new and old with my Thing-a-month, slyly inspired by JC's Thing-a-week. I've decided to have one big project per month (Novembers are already taken with nano, other things will be thought up as I go along) and work on it, keeping track of what I'm doing here. It has to be either creative, constructive, charitable, somewhere along those lines. I suppose since I'm starting this month a week in I'll try and make a comic. That's creative. Updates to follow!

But this would be a boring place if I only did one thing a month. So all the little things that bloggers do that seem to be popular- I guess I'll try those out too. Book reviews? Why not. Lists comparing pricing of a Whole foods in Boston with Shop&Spit back home? Okay. Recordings of spur-of-the-moment jam sessions in West Village? Yes. Random stuff that only I like and everyone else thinks is boring and/or ugly? Maybe. I'll stick with what I like and dump whatever is unpopular.

Part of this blog I'll use to converse with Tawm, from tawm.net, but that I'll also restrict to the vlogs.

I'll also show my vast array of personal emotions: rar! Take, for example, this news article. I am a little concerned what it says about our legal system and just how eager people are to screw one another over. I think people are just a tad overzealous to display how much power they have over others- the policeman here seems to have done it, and is getting it right back at him from someone equally unjustified! What do you think? There! Emotions! Exclamation points!

I'm nearing the end of a book, so I should have a review next time I post. Looking forward to it :)