Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Moral Dilemma

So, I have a bit of a dilemma. Recently I had one of those light-bulb over the head moments, except this was more like a flood-light or the headlights of an oncoming, speeding train. This gigantic idea came to me out of the blue for a series of books, which (of course) I think is going to be truly the best thing since sliced bread.

Where's the problem in that, I hear you expostulate while gesturing wildly at whatever electronic doohickey you're reading this on? Well, beyond the fact that if I start this thing it will most likely have me tied up for about 10 years, and that's only a wild guess in the early stages of the plans. It's highly possible this time frame could expand like the waist band of my pants seven days from now.

No, my problem is that I've been researching like mad for this thing. However, my {sarky double quotes}research{end sarky double quotes} involves endless hours of dredging through information on anything even remotely occult, as well as urban legends and mythical/supernatural creatures. It also involves watching such things as Castle, Supernatural and the likes of Sin City on a daily basis, not to mention continuing on playing Max Payne 3.

You see, none of this seems quite like work to me. There's a certain sense of guilt mixed in with my feeling of well-being at the end of a hard day's work. No longer do I have to wrestle with my conscience as I plug t'auld laptop into the telly and drool over a healthy helping of Nathan Fillion or Jensen Ackles, or dive neck and eyeballs deep into some article relating to one of the many things that interest the socks off me. It is, after all, in the name of "research"...

I suppose I can take comfort (penance) in the fact that it also involves reading huge chunks of the bible. I wonder should I start to combine this with a little light flagellation? Hmmm... Anyway, Happy Hanukkah.

Rabbi Om


Friday, December 12, 2014

Happy Hobbitday

So, here it is, the end, the last of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit sagas. The trailers for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies has been giving me shivers, and I must admit, when I think about it I do get more than a little sad that it's almost over. It's one of those things where you can't wait for it to come, but you don't want it to arrive either.

Bear in mind, fans have been following this franchise since 2001... that's 13 years ago. Excuse me while I take a moment here, to digest how aged I am... Anyway, 13 years, now that's a long time to be following anything, and to suddenly be faced with the end, well, it's nothing short of devastating.

Though I wasn't overly fond of the first Hobbit movie, the rest of the movies in the Tolkien saga blew me away, and not only for the overabundance of manliness therein either. Nope, not a shallow bone in this body.

Of course I'll give all involved the night to celebrate, but come the morrow the movie-making powers-that-be better be dug deep into a brainstorming session over the next epic to reel our way in the absence of these fine gentlemen... I mean fantastical adventure tales. Then again, there is always The Simarillion...

Annnnnnywho, in honour of this great and awful day, I made a meme :)


#fedupwithpolitepromotion #OmboBaggins 

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

#FedUpWithPolitePromotion


#thegiftofshutup #happyfeckinchristmas



#OmnisEverdeen #ifweburnyouburnwithus


Monday, December 1, 2014

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words


#AuntieOm #enoughpolitepromotion #buytheshaggingthingfortheloveofGod

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Long Suppressed Rant

*Viewer discretion advised. May (i.e. most certainly) contain strong language and/or scenes of a violent nature*

FOR FUCK SAKE, is it really, really too much in this day and age to expect people to be able to Goddamn spell, even a little bit, even close? Seriously, I'm not being conceited, but it gives me wrinkles trying to read and understand some of the utter bollocks people land out before my eyes these days IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. 

I, me, get absolutely mortified for ye lot, you know who you are! And yes I know, 'if it bothers me so much then why do I read it, blah, blah, blah', but you see, the thing is, I'm a stubborn bitch, so I'm forced to stick at it and read your God awful drivel to the bitter (and I mean bitter) end. And to be completely honest, reading some of those posts and doohickeys is like poking a dead thing with a stick - you just can't help it, you know it's disgusting, and part of you doesn't even think it can be real it's so utterly unbelievable, but you still can't stop yourself.

And here's the humdinger - THERE IS NO EXCUSE. There's spell-check on everything nowadays, even text messages, though I'd say even the most advanced AI machines would be scratching their heads at how to make suggestions for some of the attempts at actual words that have insulted keypads the world over lately. 
Not only that, but for the love of St. Michael on a pushbike, we even have the unlimited fucking option of editing our posts on Facebook this weather.

No longer is there a need to run home and root out the dictionary - we have dictionaries on hand all the time and Google at the touch of a button just in case we're unsure. I know predictive text can be to blame for some fuckups, but at least, most times anyway, this substitutes bona fide words. So it alone cannot be attributable to the fingertip diarrhea some people seem to be mortally afflicted with. 

How, pray tell, did we ever manage in the days of paper and pen? Surely... no... it can't be - did we actually have to use our brains; not be so lazy and ponder for a nanosecond on how a word or sentence is formed? What a preposterous thought, unfathomable.


For lack of any other explanation, I have come to the conclusion that the perpetrators of these heinous crimes against the English language actually desire us to think they are uneducated. Well congratulations... you've succeeded, though why on earth anyone would willingly have another think they are stupid is, yet again, beyond me. (And that there is a rant for a whole other day!)


On the other hand we could be looking at the devastating possibility that there is actually a race out there who can only speak in SMS, where the words 'their, there, and they're' are simply a choice and once chosen can and shall apply in ALL instances; where words are dreamed up willy-nilly and I'll be Methusalah's aunt if I'll ever understand what their inventors were driving at with their conception. 

If it is the case that these people really and truly are pure ignoramuses, then I will ask, on behalf of the rest of us, if you could please, for the love of all that's hot in a matchbox, try to fool us. Lie to us, baby, lie to us. 

All sarcasm and slander aside though - seriously, have some respect for yourselves people and learn your fucking ABC's, quite frankly because my crows feet are getting out of hand. Jesus wept. 

*Rant over. We will now return to scheduled programming*


Monday, January 27, 2014

Healthy Start to the Year

I think I've spouted here on more than one occassion, about a short story I started that became a novel, that became a trilogy. What in the name of the seven snotty orphans has happened to that, I hear you roar? Well she has been polished and shined, and then left to wallow in her own white space on my hard drive.

This is not because I didn't like her, or didn't know what to do with her, it was because I was reluctant to do anything with her until I'd gotten the sequel laid out and well under way. After a long and arduous haul, I'm finally about 6,000 words deep into said sequel. It's going strong and lookin' good!

However, just before I started the sequel fate threw a little spanner into the works. This spanner came in the form of a healthy little competition run by the RTE Today show and New Island Books, called the 'publish your novel' competition. And when a chance like that comes up, you just have to take it, a plague on all the well-laid plans.

The instructions are simple - write a novel, send it in. So I gave her an extra spit shine, and done just that. The book is called Walls of Grey, Veins of Stone, and here's a little about it:

Walls of Grey, Veins of Stone is a horror/thriller, set in the late 1800's that draws on startling connections between Christianity and Vampirism. To describe it in another way one would say it is something along the lines of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' meets 'The DaVinci Code' with a side helping of 'Fifty Shades of Grey.' It is spine-chilling as opposed to stomach churning; a thriller on a psychological lever rather than a gore-fest.
Chills, sex and mystery - how could you resist?

The competition closed on January 25th. The shortlist will be announced on February 21st on the RTE Today Show. The winner will be announced at a later date. So I guess what I'm saying is cross your hairs, cross your legs and fingers, and keep an eye on the bookshelves in your local bookshop!