C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 63

Picoreview: Days of Future Past: The Rogue Cut

Picoreview: Days of Future Past: The Rogue Cut: very disappointing.

There were enough longer scenes and stuff that it was clear we weren’t watching the theatre release, but we were expecting something called The Rogue Cut to, y’know, I don’t know, heavily feature Rogue, or something.

And it did, sure, more than the original, but ultimately Rogue did nothing more than what Kitty did in the theatre release, with every hope of payoff just…ffffsshhht. Washed away.

Spoilers ho.

Because it could...

vacuum triumph

In a stunning route, I have triumphed over the vacuum, which wasn’t sucking anything up. I’d taken the whole goddamn thing apart trying to find the problem, and yesterday discovered a section I hadn’t known CAME apart. Inside it was an 8″ clog of solid dust that I clawed out with chopsticks.

The vacuum worked a lot better after that. I have vacuumed the whole downstairs, which looks a great deal better. #triumph

I also have the first cold of the school year, which is less of a triumph, but al...

a must-read author

A children’s book writer and artist, Chris Judge, lives down the street from my parents. Last year, or the year before, he gave them two of his (quite charming) books for Young Indiana, who is very fond of them. (My parents gave them fudge. When Dad arrived at their house with it, Herself answered the door and said, “Oh! Thank you! We were just discussing what to have for dinner.” :))

I saw on Friday that Chris’s new book, THE SNOW BEAST, had just come out, and I told Indy about it. “A SNOW b...

Kitsnaps: Ivy Gravestone

Ivy Gravestone

Ivy-covered gravestone in Athy, Co Kildare, Ireland

This is the first composed photograph I took with my Nikon D50 DSLR camera when I bought it in January 2006, just after we moved to Ireland.

The next several photographs will all be from early 2006, and all taken in Athy, Co Kildare, where we first lived. I’m very fond of this one, though; it seemed like an auspicious start to my relationship with the camera. :)

The post Kitsnaps: Ivy Gravestone appeared first on The Essentia...

in search of a glue stick, see…

A piece of wallpaper is coming up, and so I went in search of a glue stick, see, and that’s where it all went wrong.

The glue stick would be with Young Indiana’s not-entirely-unpacked stuff of that nature, so I went out to the sun room where most of that is. Where most of it is, uselessly, I might add, because you have to leave the house to get into the sun room, so it’s not a casual step in to get to all of that stuff, which includes paper and drawing utensils and paints and coloring books a...

nibbled to death by ducks

I’m being nibbled to death by ducks. Or perhaps I am a duck, nibbling things to death. Either way I have accomplished many many small important things that probably add up to a lot but somehow don’t *seem* to.

…no, actually, having gotten the Old Races short story project kinda off the ground I suddenly feel like I *have* accomplished things. Yay!

I gotta finish up with MAGIC AND MANNERS next. The heavy lifting is done on the revisions for it, but I need to add a couple of small scenes and m...

Recent Reads: The Old Races Collections

I’m starting a new Old Races short story project, so during our Great Internet Hiatus, I re-read the two story collections I’ve done.

I almost never re-read an entire book I’ve written. I read URBAN SHAMAN when it was published, and I’ve read THE CARDINAL RULE twice just for fun, but generally I just flip through a book looking for a detail if I need to look something up, so it was kind of fascinating to actually sit down and read two books in a row written by me.

I still think BABA YAGA’S DA...

work that isn’t writing

I cannot believe it’s the end of August. This summer has been a loss to a much greater degree than expected, and I’m just sort of…I’m getting my feet back under me, at this point. And I *am* getting my feet back under me: I’ve actually accomplished a great deal of detail work over the past week, all of which was very necessary and is something of a weight off my shoulders.

Today is the first day of school:

which means I have about 8 weeks of 15-20 hours of time back to myself before the firs...

Picoreview: The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Picoreview: The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: Harry Cavill spent a fair bit of the movie wet and dirty. There’s nothing more really needs be said.

Seriously, the whole film could have been unmitigated drek and I may well not have noticed, because Harry Cavill was so incredibly beautiful that I stared at him dumbfounded every moment he was on the screen. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie where my jaw just dropped every time somebody came on screen. Usually I get inured to it, y’know, like, “Yes, wow...

a feast of strawberries

I was in town yesterday and saw a fruit vendor with 1-kilo flats of strawberries for 5 each, which I thought was an excellent deal. I bought two, came home with them, and went back out not much later to get (other things also, but) four more.

The young lady at the booth looked at me a bit askance when I came up and asked for four flats. I explained I was making jam, and she said, “Oh! Okay. I was wondering if you maybe had a bit of an addiction.” I said, “I don’t like to talk about it,” and s...