Wade Garret's Blog, page 13

First B&N review!

Every review is great and much appreciated, but like my first Amazon review, this one must also be recognized so it can set-off a great chain of events. :)

Anonymous-

A hefty read but amazing and well-worth it. Just the fact that I finished it speaks volumes that I was pulled in that far.  And, come to think of it, I can't wait for the rest as this promises to be a monumental series.  Bravo, Mr. Garret! Five grand stars.

Ink Master GETS REAL!

My bad, I'm three episodes behind in posting. Sue me. :) No, don't, I'm poor. 
Neo-Traditional The artists (working in teams) had to do a male and female image. Everyone did faces except one team.
Bubba can't draw. Even with a reference he made the male a different ethnicity. How didn't he know the guy wasn't Asian? It was just bad. His partner, Jim, well, his was ugly. Sausage and Melissa worked well together. Sausage ended up having best tat of the day. Gentle Jay and Lydia came out ok. Her's had a few more issues, but they both allowed a purple blob to mess up their overall good composition. Halo and Kyle...I thought Halo's was good, just too dark. On the other hand, Kyle's was funky; the head/neck was busted, making it look odd. Now, here's the meat of it: King and Keith. I agree, their canvas was a %$#@^. A HORRIBLE CLIENT. If he ever walked into their shops (likely any shop in the future that recognizes him) they would've kicked him to the curb. Rightfully so. And what made it worse, he couldn't SIT! Are you Kidding me? How the hell do you go in for a tattoo, with his attitude and not be able to sit for it? So, the douche taps out, King tattoos himself to stay in the game and Keith cries about it.
That's right, Keith and Bubba were sent packing. 
CoverYou guessed it, they had to cover some old busted or regretted tattoos.
WTF do you mean JIM is "partially" color blind? WTF!!!! You could see through it based upon his color choices. King's didn't cover. Bad color choices. Bad design to cover with. Yellow is like the F-U color when doing a coverup. Jay, well, his covered but you knew it was a coverup cause of the giant HAT and the overall tattoo wasn't up to par given the level of the game. Everyone else either skated-by or did an overall good tattoo, except Kyle, his ended up being HUGE and totally unnecessary and odd to wear. Which is why he got a rough call-out by Nunez about being a "pigeon holed" artist.
In the end, King and Jim got bounced. I'll say this. King was a man about it. He's a beast and though his skills aren't where they will be one day, I think he's a badass for doing what he did and acting how he did throughout the show. 
Demons
Ok, so we all know what happened in his ep. Kyle's been throwing a huge tantrum since he's been on the show, even last season. So finally he had enough of his inadequacies and lashed out at Nunez, which got him removed from the show. And the funny part about it, is when asked directly if he was doing better than Scott, Sausage or Matti (though unmentioned) he paused. Kyle isn't a horrible tattooer, but he can't handle the pressure, not being able to pick'n'n choose what/when/where/why/how he has to work. It's a contest. It's business and Kyle's been a baby about about it since the word GO. So it was time for him to go.
After they played with explosives—cool gunpowder art on large canvases— everyone had to do DEMON tattoos. Matti's was very good. Of course.Scott's was very good, but not really so much a demon as it was horror, so that hurt him. Halo, who is often a front runner, over did it and made it unreadable. Sausage, who had a ^%$#* for a canvas, ended up doing an outstanding tat. Lydia's tat wasn't bad, but was weak compared to everyone else. Melissa made a demon turtle—I thought the same the moment I saw it—and while that doesn't make it bad, her background kinda messed things up.
In the end, Lydia's time was up and like King, she went out like a pro, which will allow her to continue her tattooing with pride. She can do really good work, but admitted this type of setting was too much for her. Some of the previous artists, well, I can't believe how they acted—They do realize they were being filmed, right?

FACEOFF: Final 4!!!

Well, if you can count, you know I'm already over by one.
1) Daran Holt isn't here any more. He went out on a sorry robot, but it was his first one, so we won't hold it against him too much. He had some great builds. He'll be missed. 
2) Let's see if any of my predictions were right... 
So I said George was great. He's still here.I said Tyler and Niko were both very strong. Boom! Still here.I said Rashaad and Daran :( were the two best, but was leaning more towards Rashaad.4 out of 5 ain't to shabby.
Now—(coughing, clearing throat)—I did say Chole was my orig favorite to win, though I added "we'll see" and since I haven't posted anything since then, well, I was right to add the disclaimer on the end.
3) I don't think Graham should've gone out on his Mole Man. Also, I didn't think his Mad Scientist was bad either. If you've ever seen Akira, then you'd see how the Mad Scientist with the long nasty arm resembled that Anime and many others. OH WELL.4) I liked Niko's Industrial Robot, even if I'm the only one. :) 5) While I like Daran and was said he went, if he had to go, he should've gone for his Freak of Nature makeup. ***The whole "Mutant" thing, didn't feel Mutant/X-Men at all, as it was meant to. Everyone's felt like an animal/insect human hybrid. Only Niko and Daran's, though his failed, felt like a Hero/Villain Mutant. Hell, Rashaad's later robot looked more like a Hero Mutant than his Freak of Nature makeup.***
6) I think I had issues with all the Vampires from the last episode, but that's just me. How do you think their upcoming Werewolves will work with their Vampires since I'm thinking each of those V-types are without a corresponding native Werewolf?
Watch FACEOFF

Live interview with the Fantastic Sherri Rabinowitz!

Thanks again to my friend Sherri

*Here's the link, it will take a few seconds to open after you've clicked the PLAY button: LINK

It was a lot of fun. Please Share and RT if you enjoyed it.
Finally, here are some other questions we didn't get to because of our fun gabbing:

Q: When you go through your need to write time do you make deals with your friends and family?

    Well, since I do 75% of it really late at night and I’m mostly a homebody outside of my day job, it’s not so hard to get the time I need to get my mostly finished thoughts on the computer. The problem is, since my craft is mostly a hack’n’slash style and I’ve only two days off a week, one usually spent with my wife or some kinda mission of every-day-life, I really only get one good full day to write, that is, to create—whether that ends up being good creations or things I eventually throw away. It’s the process. 

Q: Does reading a good book ignite your imagination?

    Of course. You can see the way things should done: dialogue, description, narration, detail and action; also, reading can easily help you to flush-out your own ideas. And it can be something so simple as a phrase or character or w/e that then awakens you to realize something you’d been struggling with for awhile. There’s also the times when you read something that allows you to finally have the courage to blend genres, cause, well, people used to and still sometimes do frown upon it. However, you have to be careful as Steven King said in his book on writing, that you don’t write what you’re reading, which is something I feel happens to many writers from time to time, at least in the beginning, though I’d bet even the most experienced writer finds himself walking that fine line considering how media is everywhere.

Finally, I will take this time now to add to one question, which I feel I didn't answer as well as I should've—nervousness, it sucks. :) Anyway, the question was something about "Giving a taste of the best part of my story, what I want the reader to take away from it." I kinda then gave an overall/theme as it relates specifically to the key protagonist.
Keep the words of Kyle Reese in mind, "Listen, and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.  Here's what I left out :"The take-away from my story is what the conflict between what is (Truly) Good and (Truly) Evil really means; rare as they should be represented in any story. The Light part is easy, I don't think many writers get these degrees of goodness wrong according to their story. I do, however, feel that sometimes the degrees of EVIL or what's represented as Evil "The Enemy" isn't always made as brutal or dark as it should be and very often than not, Evil is also made to be, well, dumb; making Evil stupid, allows the Good to survive and escape to fight another day or to win when you wonder why Evil wasn't better prepared. I try my best not to do those things; that is, write myself into such a corner. If the varying shades of  EVIL are to be feared, really feared, across the entirety of the series, they can't become a joke. We all know the jokes about Storm Troopers, right? Ok, so my baddies and their bosses won't become jokes like that, the heroes will always fear/respect them. The characters who don't (as does happen) well, you'll know what color shirts they'll end up wearing before long. My Star Trek Fans know what I'm talking about."

Live intereview with the Fantastic Sherri Rabinowitz!

Thanks again to my friend Sherri

*Here's the link, it will take a few seconds to open after you've clicked the PLAY button: LINK

It was a lot of fun. Please Share and RT if you enjoyed it.
Finally, here are some other questions we didn't get to because of our fun gabbing:

Q: When you go through your need to write time do you make deals with your friends and family?

    Well, since I do 75% of it really late at night and I’m mostly a homebody outside of my day job, it’s not so hard to get the time I need to get my mostly finished thoughts on the computer. The problem is, since my craft is mostly a hack’n’slash style and I’ve only two days off a week, one usually spent with my wife or some kinda mission of every-day-life, I really only get one good full day to write, that is, to create—whether that ends up being good creations or things I eventually throw away. It’s the process. 

Q: Does reading a good book ignite your imagination?

    Of course. You can see the way things should done: dialogue, description, narration, detail and action; also, reading can easily help you to flush-out your own ideas. And it can be something so simple as a phrase or character or w/e that then awakens you to realize something you’d been struggling with for awhile. There’s also the times when you read something that allows you to finally have the courage to blend genres, cause, well, people used to and still sometimes do frown upon it. However, you have to be careful as Steven King said in his book on writing, that you don’t write what you’re reading, which is something I feel happens to many writers from time to time, at least in the beginning, though I’d bet even the most experienced writer finds himself walking that fine line considering how media is everywhere.

Finally, I will take this time now to add to one question, which I feel I didn't answer as well as I should've—nervousness, it sucks. :) Anyway, the question was something about "Giving a taste of the best part of my story, what I want the reader to take away from it." I kinda then gave an overall/theme as it relates specifically to the key protagonist.
Keep the words of Kyle Reese in mind, "Listen, and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.  Here's what I left out :"The take-away from my story is what the conflict between what is (Truly) Good and (Truly) Evil really means; rare as they should be represented in any story. The Light part is easy, I don't think many writers get these degrees of goodness wrong according to their story. I do, however, feel that sometimes the degrees of EVIL or what's represented as Evil "The Enemy" isn't always made as brutal or dark as it should be and very often than not, Evil is also made to be, well, dumb; making Evil stupid, allows the Good to survive and escape to fight another day or to win when you wonder why Evil wasn't better prepared. I try my best not to do those things; that is, write myself into such a corner. If the varying shades of  EVIL are to be feared, really feared, across the entirety of the series, they can't become a joke. We all know the jokes about Storm Troopers, right? Ok, so my baddies and their bosses won't become jokes like that, the heroes will always fear/respect them. The characters who don't (as does happen) well, you'll know what color shirts they'll end up wearing before long. My Star Trek Fans know what I'm talking about."

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"Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life."                                                                                     - Mark Twain

Star Wars: The Clone Wars. My REVIEW of LAST 13!!!!

So, lots of spoilers coming, but I think it's fair, because The Lost Missions, which spoiled for me very quickly, should've remained LOST. First, let me say, I've been going around online and reading a variety of reviews detailing these LAST episodes of Star Wars acclaimed Clone Wars Series, which, despite issues existing throughout Star Wars, was, nevertheless, a pretty good show. However, these last 13 episodes they opted to reveal, instead of others they could've made in the first place, displays, at least to me, why prequels aren't really satisfactory in the end. 
Ok, so lets go over them one by one.!!!!SPOILERS!!!!
1) Ep 1 CONDITION UNKNOWN; Ep 2 CONSPIRACY; Ep 3 FUGITIVE; Ep 4 ORDERS: This is the first known/reported issues of ORDER 66 going into action. Clone Tups murders a Jedi in the middle of battle. He's then arrested and returned to Kamino for inspection since it seems he's gone nuts. There, Clone Fives requests to stay by Tups' side till an answer is discovered. Later, we learn that of course Kamino is in on ORDER 66 *DUH* and that they want to destroy the evidence. However, before they do so, Fives is secretly examined and found to have the same organic trigger/chip in his head, which no one knew about, though the Kaminos say is normal for Clones and that his is working properly, while the Tubs' wasn't—that's why he went nuts and shot the Jedi.
Either way, despite the mystery, despite the suspicious nature of the Kaminos, the army made in secret built upon a bounty hunter, the Jedi dead and missing who orchestrated the whole thing and fantastic future tech of Star Wars—the ability to send data from one planet to another—they all agree it'd be best to ESCORT the "chip" and Fives to the Emperor, sorry, Chancellor Palpatine directly. Who, of course, feigns attack at the first opportunity so the CONSPIRACY to control the Clones outside of the Republic remains a believable side-effect of a viruslike contamination, as is believed the answer to Tups. Meaning, Fives is soon going to go nuts and kill Jedi. PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE OVERWHELMING SUSPICION!!!!
On the run, Fives hooks up with his old unit and gets a message to General Skywalker and his old commander who he asks to meet him. They do, but of course they're found out before Fives can spill the beans about w/e Palpatine told him (which is what set him off) and he's killed...the matter then swept under the rug. All's well for the Sith. 
Ok. So here's my problem with using 4 episodes from an ENDING SERIES to tell a side story about Order 66. WHO THE &*^$ Cares???????
Yes, it was mildly entertaining, but unlike previous stories throughout the Clone Wars, specific to the CLONES, you knew from the start how it was going to play out. Nothing of consequence could be learned. Nothing changed. Nothing added, not really. This wasn't an unknown battle or an unknown enemy that the Clones struck down without anyone being the wiser, yet adding to the overall coolness of the Star Wars Universe by exemplifying the Clones. Ok, so you learned there was an OPPS in the program, doesn't matter, the Sith quickly fixed it and all remained well. All this does is yet again point out how inept the Jedi are, though I'll go into that later in greater detail.  

2) Ep 5 AN OLD FRIEND; Ep 6 THE RISE OF CLOVIS; Ep 7 CRISIS AT THE HEART: Did you know both the Republic and the Separatists are using the same banking system/planet for their war efforts? Did you know the Clan behind it all is leaning towards the Separatists, therefore not charging them interest on their loans? Did you know because of this they're screwing over the Republic?
Well, that's what you learn in these three episodes, plus an old love interest of Senator Padmé Amidala is at the heart of it, speaking for the Separatists, which causes some issues with General Skywalker—who of course has to rescue them from a bounty hunter working for the Sith, who is helping to push forward a much larger plan unknown to them all.
With the corruption exposed, Clovis is elected control of the banking planet, but this exlove turns out to be in league with Count Dooku and of course once that's learned, the banking planet/system for the Republic and the Separatists...yep, falls under the control of Emperor, oops, I mean, Chancellor Palpetine....The only other tidbit of information you learn is General Skywalker gets a bit violent (upsetting Padmé) when it comes to his wife's exlove: a traitor/separatist in league with Dooku, though considering you've likely seen the movies...DUH!

Ok, so my issues with using 3 episodes from an ENDING SERIES to tell this story about War Finance/Profiteering is as before...WHO THE *&%$ CARES???? The Chancellor becomes Emperor so we KNOW he takes control of the monetary system!!! The very minor substory with Skywalker and Padmé's relationship is, well, not enough and kinda assumed. Also, the little bit we get with bounty hunter Embo, while cool and fun to watch, was fluff when compared to the overall uninteresting and overall irrelevancy of this three parter.

3) Ep 8 THE DISAPPEARED Part I; Ep 9 THE DISAPPEARED Part II:

Jar-Jar and Mace Windu are charged with tracking down the....*sigh*
Nope. Nope. Sorry. I can't do it.  I can't even give you the basic details of this. Lets just sum up these two by saying this is a horrible take on a Buddy Cop partnership, that means absolutely NOTHING in the END, except that Mace kills the Queen of the Night Sisters.
Seriously? Episode 8&9 of the ENDING SERIES and you tell a Jar-Jar *&%^$!@ STORY?WTF?
4) Ep 10 THE LOST ONE:

Now, 10yrs later, we get back to the story/character of Master Sifo Dyas, who mysteriously took it upon himself to order the creation of the Clone Army, without anyone knowing and with funds no one cared to investigate for 10YRSSSS.
So, after luckily responding to a tracking signal, the Jedi discover the wreckage of Sifo Dyas. I love how the episode admits that Dyas was removed from the Jedi Council because his ideas were "too extreme", ya know, something about needing an army...coming darkness...bla bla bla...and Obi Wan brushes it off saying "Well, this isn't the first time we've been wrong." ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Never mind that, we'll get back to that. So, knowing know what they do, the Jedi research Dyas' death and learn the records have been sealed by the Office of the Supreme Chancellor...YEP...That's right. So Yoda goes and talks to the Chancellor, who tells him that was before his administration, he'd have to go and talk to his predecessor (though, couldn't he just open the files, ya know, he's got the title now? Damn...nevermind, we'll get to that later.)
From there, Yoda learns that Obi Wan and Skywalker discovered Dyas wasn't alone, there was another Jedi with him on the mission. Ok, so Yoda goes to talk to the old Chancellor about what they've learned....DUNE/SPICE REFERENCE DROOPED!!!! VERY COOL!!! But what Yoda learns is that Dyas was sent to Pike, to deal with a conflict there, not where Obi Wan and Skywalker said he ended up dying. And nope, the Jedi didn't know about this secret mission to Pike. From the ex-Chancellor, Yoda learns there wasn't a second Jedi, but there was another person, the previous Chancellors personal aid accompanied Dyas. *Oh, and why didn't the Chancellor simply OPEN the file, instead of trying to vaguely talk about it since it was sooo long ago. Facts: they're fun and useful!*
So, with all the issues, the Jedi are dispatched to Pike TEN YEARS AFTER THE FACT ! Never mind Obi Wan did some kinda investigation into Dyas...Ok, I gotta keep going or I'll just get frustrated.
On Pike, Obi Wan and Skywalker learn the Pikes (criminal organization) made a deal with Darth Lord Tyranus (Count Dooku) and that the previous Chancellor's assistant has remained imprisoned since the death of Dyas. The Pikes were smart to keep something to bargain with. Obi Wan says he's heard of Tyranus before, from Jango on Kamino. However, again, right before they figure out anything from the innocent captive, Dooko arrives and kills him—though neither sensed the Dark Side—Dooku then kills the leader of the Pikes and escapes. So it finally comes to the Jedi's attention that the Sith have set forth everything as it is and that they have no option but to trust in the Clones and Win the war before the Sith's ultimate plan comes into fruition.


So, this was a great episode and aside from the obvious issues with plot, I think this was a good episode. No, I'm not giving Lucas or anyone related to Star Wars a pass for those things, but as far as being a good final episode in the series of Star Wars: Clone Wars, it's a good one.

5) Ep 11 VOICES; Ep 12 DESTINY; EP 13 SACRIFICE
This is a three part story about Yoda, the Force: Dark and Light and Life After.
Watch them. They're good, so I won't spoil them. 

So let me end by saying a few things.
A) The Jedi had countless chances to discover what was going on, but through Lucas, they appear inept to the Dark Side's plans, which, the cloudy-effect of the Dark Side or not, left a paper/digital trail obvious to anyone the moment you start looking:
1) Division of the Galactic Republic for a variety of reasons, mainly corruption 2) Jedi Master Dyas removed from the Council for saying a great war was coming 3) He was then murdered by Separatist/Sith Lord Tyranus while on a secret mission sealed by the Office of the Chancellor—Tyranus' name later dropped by an ExJedi then turned Separatist Count Dooku (they're one in the same and he was also good friends with Master Dyas and Qui-Gon)—and all this AFTER making a secret army of Clones with unknown funds bankrolled by Darth Sidious previous Master; the army being constructed upon a notorious Bounty Hunter's DNA, the evidence of that planet removed from the Jedi archives after the loss of both Dyas and Dooku from the Jedi Order 4) New Chancellor 5) Dooku is a Separatist/Sith 6) Clone Wars Begin, fulling Dyas' warning 7) Clones suggested to have defect that drives them to kill Jedi, leading back to Kamino/Coverup/Corruption in the Republic/the Chancellor 8) Chancellor takes control of baking for the known universe, after it appears the newest chairman of the banking planet was in league with Count Dooku/Lord Tyranus 9) Sith plot becomes clear, yet trust in the Clones they do 10)Yoda learns to live beyond the flesh, that the war/Jedi/Republic is lost except for the fact there will be another Skywalker.
Then we get into movie info...
And I'm sure there are a dozen or more things (previous seasons) that had the Jedi taken the time to look—which they would've had anyone but Lucas been behind the story—they would've discovered the Plot; which isn't to say the Sith couldn't have still gotten away with it, but it would've taken better writing and storytelling to both allow them to do this, while not portraying the Jedi as simultaneously ignorant and naive to the realities going on around them, on-top-of the Dark Side being an ever-so convenient way to hide things when backed into a corner. 

Finally, what these last episodes fail to even discuss: because to spread it out over books, comics and the new Star Wars Rebels TV Show over the next few years makes more sense ($$$$$$$$) than cleaning up all loose ends that were orig created by this show.
A) What happened to Darth Maul?
B) Asoka?
C) Prominent Clones?

So my overall for The Lost Missions is a C- and for the Clone Wars in all B+

What do you think?
Watch for yourself. 

Newest Interview!

Thanks to my friends at Two Ends of the Pen. I enjoyed it.
Here's the Link: Interview
Interesting site, cool people dropping by. Follow them and let them know what you think and maybe they'll review my book in the future...

Thanks again,

Enjoy

Wade

It was amazing! Neil deGrasse Tyson is the MAN!

watch

Another Amazon Reveiw

T. Hendley:

I started reading this book and haven't been able to put it down. Going to recommend this one to anyone who appreciates this genre!