The Use of Oceans

Twitter Sonnet #144

Miniature lambs meet a large cat's disdain.
Small animals must jump fences faster.
From livestock batteries sleep's not sustained.
Walking wool things serve a different master.
Cold coffee might yet think it's warm for you.
Blue night clouds keep memories of raisins.
Bran cereal searches bowls for a clue.
Milk surface shows projections of treasons.
Food didn't make an ogre twelve feet tall.
Cell phone batteries forget what they need.
An old cello's fingerboard has it all.
For stomachs too sour to-night for mead.
Caulk arrests arteries for a bad law.
Late baths arm Pigpen with je ne sais quoi.

I think Google has officially won the internet now with its Pac-Man anniversary, playable logo. I found myself playing Pac-Man for half an hour. I haven't done that since I was kid at the nearby, now long closed down, arcade where every game was a nickel or a dime. It was a great, poorly lit labyrinth of arcade games. They don't make them like that anymore, when they make them at all.

My mind's totally consumed with Venia's Travels right now, it's hard to think of anything else. During the CHUD interview, Ian asked me if I had the whole plot laid out already, and I told him I had some of the broad strokes, but I like to leave things a little loose. I actually came up with an outline for Boschen and Nesuko at around the fourth or fifth chapter, but the final comic ended up deviating from the outline almost entirely. With Venia's Travels, I find myself contemplating a lot of different endings. One week I find myself absolutely convinced the comic will end one way, and the next week I think for sure it'll end another. It's like Yoda said, "Always in motion is future."

My sister remarked last night that the puppet Yoda was much better than the cgi Yoda, which I completely agree with, though for some reason the puppet looks a little different in Episode 1 than he did in the earlier films. I've never been able to figure out why--he's smaller, maybe more Kermit-like.

I read the first story in the new Sirenia Digest while I ate breakfast to-day, "Tempest Witch", a beautiful homage to a Frank Frazetta painting (The Sea Witch) sprinkled with references to Shakespeare's The Tempest. Mainly a meditation on sea and sea-faring imagery, but also apparently about the destructive potential of dreams.

I played a lot of Fallout 3 yesterday, both here and at Tim's. In case anyone's wondering, here's my custom playlist of mp3s. The game sticks to tracks for specific regions in those regions, but shuffles them;

Explore (for all wasteland and outdoor areas)

"Main Title" The Shining OST - Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind
"Rocky Mountains" The Shining OST - Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind
"The Sundown" The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly OST - Ennio Morricone
"Desert Suite" Terminator 2 OST - Brad Fiedel
"The Desert" The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly OST - Ennio Morricone
"The Transgression" Once Upon a Time in the West OST - Ennio Morricone
"TV or Not TV" Videodrome OST - Howard Shore
"The Streets" Vertigo OST - Bernard Herrmann
"The Forest" Vertigo OST - Bernard Herrmann
"Tales of the Future" Bladerunner OST - Vangelis
"Memories of Green" Bladerunner OST - Vangelis
"Sunset Narration" Citizen Kane OST - Bernard Herrmann
"Susan's Room" Citizen Kane OST - Bernard Herrmann
"The Trip" Citizen Kane OST - Bernard Herrmann
"Xanadu Music" Citizen Kane OST - Bernard Herrmann (all Citizen Kane tracks are from the recording of Joel McNeely conducting).
"Prelude - The Bay" Shutter Island OST - Ingram Marshall
"On the Nature of Daylight" - Max Richter
"Fog Tropes" - Ingram Marshall

Dungeon (for sewers, subways, abandoned buidlings, and most interiors)

"Lux Aeterna" - Gyorgi Ligeti
"Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta" - Bela Bartok
"Hieroglyphics" - Spider OST - Howard Shore and the Kronos Quartet
"Atmosphere Station" Aliens OST - James Horner
"Requiem IV Lacrimosa Molto Lento" - Gyorgi Ligeti
"The Match Box" North by Northwest OST - Bernard Herrmann
"The Message" North by Northwest OST - Bernard Herrmann
"The TV" North by Northwest OST - Bernard Herrmann
"The Night" Citizen Kane OST - Bernard Herrmann
"The Terrain" Alien OST - Jerry Goldsmith
"The Passage" Alien OST - Jerry Goldsmith
"Lizard Point" - Brian Eno

Public (for all friendly towns. I need to find more tracks for this one)

"The City" Psycho OST - Bernard Herrmann
"Freshly Squeezed" Twin Peaks OST - Angelo Badalamenti
"Akron Meets the Blues" Blue Velvet OST - Angelo Badalamenti
"Felt Tip Pen" Cowboy Bebop OST - Yoko Kanno

Battle (for when you're fighting something)

"The Wild Ride" North by Northwest OST - Bernard Herrmann
"Swat Team Attack" Terminator 2 OST - Brad Fiedel
"Ripley's Rescue" Aliens OST - James Horner
"Helicopter Chase" Terminator 2 OST - Brad Fiedel
"Tanker Chase" Terminator 2 OST - Brad Fiedel
"The Stone Faces" North by Northwest OST - Bernard Herrmann
"Rush" Cowboy Bebop OST - Yoko Kanno