Heh. Some dude just emailed me and offered to buy my 24addict.com domain name for 60 bucks. I scoffed. Sixty measly dollars for a domain I’ve owned for over 5 years and tended to like it was my own child? What a dolt.

It’s up for renewal in a few weeks but this is the first time an offer was made for it. He said, “I assume you are not interested in keeping it for yourself…” Ummm, did you bother to load up the addy in your little browser there buddy? Does it not look like a busy little site full of 24 goodness for the fans? Moron.

Ok, I’m done scoffing at this guy now 🙂

It’s been a nice weekend apart from dealing with domain vultures. Friday evening was spent with my Grampa at the season’s final football game at my daughter’s high school. What’s that? Me at a football game? The hell you say.

Yes it’s true! 🙂 The stadium was being rededicated in its 60th year and as it’s a memorial stadium originally dedicated to war vets, they invited WWII veterans to the game, fed them up, gave them some cool swag and honored them by name at halftime. My Grampa was one of them. It was really lovely and I think he felt pretty proud.

He served in the Navy on the USS Daly during WWII and the Korean War. Ironic eh? A boy from a landlocked state joining the Navy? 🙂 His Army father was none too pleased. I love listening to Grampa’s stories. My favourite one is the pineapple story. While he was away, the ship had evidently way overstocked on tinned pineapple, so it was served with every single meal day in and day out. Well, Grampa didn’t like it much to begin with but by the time he was allowed to go home on leave he pretty much never wanted to see another pineapple every again.

So he arrives home to Omaha and at his first dinner back, his family proudly served some pineapple that they had been saving from their rations just for him. The look on his face when he gets to this part of the story is hilarious. He said it was the hardest meal he ever had to eat because there was no way he was going to let them know how much he hated it.

Awww 🙂

Anyway, the game was fun even though we lost and Grampa went home a happy camper. The rest of the weekend we stayed in (as usual really) because the kid is not feeling so hot and I don’t want her to miss class. My first TV column in a while was in the paper Sunday which was nice. I did end up writing about the Vampire debate on Moonlight/Angel/Forever Knight and I nicked a lot of it from my last blog on the subject. I doubt anyone will comment on it though because that column is buried in the paper in the TV section no one ever reads because they all have on screen tv guides. Oh well, I have a nice scrapbook and can sort of say “I’m published” 🙂

I’m off to see if the vulture wrote me back when I none-too-politely told him to sod off.

This is a totally irrelevant post, much like my last few. Feel free to skip it.

I was forced to go to sitting in a ‘Please give us money’ United Way meeting this morning (normally I have no problem donating a bit of my paychecks throughout the year because I think the services the UW serves are worthy. Just this year, I’m struggling so much that it just galls me a bit to give them money and be subjected to tearjerker stories by the speakers to get me to give. Makes me feel manipulated) and as we waited for it to start one of the ladies made smalltalk by pointing out how much she adored this other lady’s shoes.

See, I don’t understand the Shoe Thing. They’re shoes. They keep your feet warm or cool depending on he weather and stop you from slicing the crap out of your feet should you meander through a pile of broken glass.

This lady’s shoes weren’t anything to squeal over either. They were plain black slingbacks (and I only know the term slingback thanks to many episodes of Sex and the City) with a slight heel. What’s the appeal? Why were they comment-worthy? I just don’t get it.

Now, I’ll admit to being happy to find a pair of shoes that look nice on my feet or match an outfit or something. But I’m no shoe whore. I have my ‘work’ shoes, most of them are all black and go from a loafer to a boot. This summer I’ve been back and forthing between a couple different styles of sandals. I have some dreaded fake crocs that are marvelous slipons and have lasted a couple of years (and two trips to Montana for ice cold stream wading.) I’ve got a couple pairs of sneakers left over from my waitressing days and my beloved Doc Martens that I bought in England.

My Docs are actually the most expensive shoes I own (well boots.) Everything else pretty much came from Payless.

So, my shoes are pretty much just perfunctory as opposed to decorative. I just can’t bring myself to get all drooly over shoes.

Maybe my problem – if not being a shoe whore is considered a problem – is that I can never find shoes in my size. The cute and fun shoes stop at about size 9. Anything after that and it gets harder to find anything decent. So maybe my lack of shoe whoriness is due to jealousy.

Nah.

I dunno why I felt the need to talk about this. I guess I’m still just baffled as to what the hell was so special about that chick’s black pointy shoes.

Bless the British for giving us National Orgasm Week complete with articles like this one (NSFW).

I think my favourite line from the article is: From poor communication to a lack of inspiration in the sack, we’re getting saddled with rubbish romps and doing next to nothing about it.

Heehee. Rubbish romps. That’s so Benny Hill.

Just thought of one more cover I like better than the original. Gary Jules version of ‘Mad World’ (from Donnie Darko) is just perfect. Admittedly, I fell in love with that song after seeing the movie and I’d never heard the Tears for Fears original so I may be a bit biased here.

XM plays the TFF version all the time and it’s just weird to me. It’s upbeat and faster. Less moody. Yep, definitely prefer the Gary Jules version.

Just had to get that out there 🙂

Have I mentioned lately how much I adore Wil Wheaton?

As a writer wannabe, it means the world to me to read a post like that from someone who’s brave enough to tell the world how terrified they are of writing fiction. As usual, a far superior writer put into words everything I feel about it myself.

That is all.

Well it’s been a strange weekend. I feel like I’ve been in a cave for most of it but that’s most likely due to the gloomy, drizzly weather we had all weekend which made my whole place seem so dark.

Not that I’m complaining. Anyone who knows me knows that gloomy/drizzly/foggy is my preferred type of weather. So to me, the weekend was fabulous weather-wise.

I had two netflix vids to watch: 28 Weeks Later and Disturbia. I liked them both, but frankly I could have done without the bloody vomit in 28 Weeks.

I also think I liked 28 Days Later better though both have their merits. Robert Carlyle being one of the best things about 28 Weeks 🙂 I lurve him. But I felt the movie was pretty much just ‘flee the rage zombies in new and interesting ways’ rather than exploring much of a plot. But that’s ok. I enjoyed the look of the film. It must have been difficult to make an overcrowded little island like the UK look deserted and abandoned.

Disturbia was fun. Not really a sleep-with-the-lights-on flick because it spent too much time building up to the climax (is there such a thing as spending too much time building up to a climax? Hehe. A thought for another blog.) but that time was enjoyable and fun so you don’t feel too gipped by it. It’s a Dreamworks film and it’s PG-13 so I ended up watching it with Shannon. She now wishes to build a twinkie tower and I long for a covert plan I can label “Operation Stupid.”

Currently, I’m trying to log in to my FTP server so I can edit ukmelia.com and add a new blog I’ve started. (God I know. Another feckin’ blog.) FTP is making me its bitch though so I’ll stick the link here until I can get in. It’s called The Storyteller and is another experiment that sort of came to me on my drive to work this morning.

See, I had a nightmare last night. Nothing too scary but scary enough to jolt me awake at 2am. It was creepifying and I can remember most of it still. This is probably because I spent the next hour or so thinking about how good of a story it could be. I creeped myself out more recalling details and stuff but it was worth it. I have a basis for a decent little horror story.

And as i was thinking about it again on the drive this morning I got to thinking about fanfic and how most ficcers post their stories online a chapter or two at a time. I figured I’d try the same thing but with my own fiction, on my own terms, in my own blog. I don’t care if no one ever reads it but if they did, I dig on the idea of doing the blog version of a radio serial. The whole ‘tune in next week to find out what happens’ thing.

It will probably flop, but I don’t care about that either. This is for me and if someone happens to want to read along, so much the better 🙂 But anyway, I’ll be linking it on the right there and on ukmelia.com. It has an RSS feed as well if anyone wants to stick it in their favourite feedreader.

So wish me luck 🙂

David Boreanaz played the title character, a broody vampire P.I. in Los Angeles who’s seeking redemption on “Angel.” Geraint Wyn Davies played Nick Knight, a hopeful but naive vampire detective in Toronto on “Forever Knight.” Alex O’Laughlin plays Mick St. John, a… well I haven’t got a bead on his disposition yet but I can tell you he’s a vampire P.I. in Los Angeles on CBS’ new show “Moonlight.”

As a fan of both “Forever Knight” and “Angel” I was chagrined when I heard about “Moonlight.” My gut reaction was, “Didn’t they already do this with Angel?” And some part of me wondered why the creators of these shows feel compelled to make their heroes involved in some way with law enforcement. They’re either private investigators solving cases brought to them or they’re actually on the force.

I suppose it’s a logical place for them to be. They want to help the helpless so it stands to reason they’d put themselves in a position to help, such as detective work or taking cases as an investigator. So I guess I can get past that roadblock.

But after three episodes of Moonlight, even though I don’t mind it, I can’t help feeling like the creators are not really very creative. Let’s look at some more similarities between the three aforementioned shows:

Tortured Vamp falls in love with feisty blonde:
– Angel never really got over his love for Buffy.
– Mick St. John seems to be falling for a spunky blonde internet reporter.
– Nick’s loves weren’t blonde but they were plenty feisty.

Vamp feels overwhelming guilt for his past:
– Angel was cursed with a soul that forced him to face hundreds of years of slaughter and mayhem. For most of the show’s run, Angel holds on to a slight hope from a prophecy that says if he redeems himself fully, he will be rewarded by becoming human.
– Nick Knight refuses to drink human blood as he searches for a cure that will make him human.
– Mick also won’t drink ‘from the tap’ so to speak, preferring instead to drink bagged blood.

Vamp has an even older vampire, or ‘sire’ that either guides them or tries to get them back to their old ways:
– Angel’s sire, Darla, did her best to make Angel lose his soul and return to his wicked ways.
– Nick’s sire, LaCroix was always looking for ways to manipulate Nick in an attempt to get Nick back in the killing fold.
– Mick’s comes in the guise of friend who’s centuries older than himself. So far his purpose has been to make Mick ensure the fact that vampires are amongst the cattle stays a secret. I haven’t quite figured out what his game is but I’ve only watched three episodes.

When “Moonlight” was announced there was a lot of rumbling from fans of “Angel” who felt the it was ‘ripping off’ their beloved show. Looking at the similarities I’ve come across, I think a case could be made for that. But I also think I’d like to watch more of it before I pass judgement.

“Angel” was deeply steeped in a carefully woven tapestry of vampire and demon lore that began as far back as the first season of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” It’s richly layered, well-written and had that as its base when “Angel” the spin-off began. I believe, despite the similarities seen in “Moonlight,” it will be very difficult to touch the brilliance of “Angel.” I don’t think “Moonlight” is even trying to do that.

I think perhaps “Moonlight” will strive to be its own show despite borrowing some themes from other shows in this genre. It’s beautifully shot. The sets are dramatic and lovely. The use of flashbacks has slowly unraveled a bit of Mick St. John’s brief vampiric life and created interest in it. That’s one definite difference from the other shows: Mick St. John is a relative newbie to vampirism than his counterparts on “Angel” and “Forever Knight”. Angel was around 250 and Nick Knight was around 800.

I’m going to give the show a chance. There are some things I rather like about it such as the fight sequences and well, the vamps just look cool when they vamp out 🙂 And if you’re wondering why I’m writing about all this anyway, this will probably be turned into my TV column for the paper this week 🙂