Fuck clichés, I’m posting a picture of my cat. I miss her. Haven’t seen her since Christmas.

In other news:
- If you’re at a live jazz event, keep your fucking mouth shut. I don’t care what your boyfriend tells you to get in your pants, YOU CAN’T SING. Shut up or get the fuck out.

- I love you, man is freakin hilarious. Go see it. It’s awesome.

- How I met your mother is freakin hilarious. Watch it. It’s legen… wait for it… DARY!

- Terminator 4 is a turd of epic proportions. You’d be better off just ripping your eyes out with a spoon right away. Seriously, don’t go.

- Vacations off the grid approaching fast. Offline run starts friday evening. Two weeks without TV, Internet or cell. Complete isolation. Freedom.

- I need to get in shape. After the two weeks in the back country, I’ll start Jeet Kune Do training next August. Also need to find tango classes. Tango is cool.

- Work in progress for project name Tempus Fugit: Got the outlines, started the actual writing.

- Barney Stinson is AWESOME. Best character ever. I know I already mentioned HIMYM but he’s that awesome.

My main rig Sandbox, the construction of which was detailed here if you remember, suffered a debilitating blow merely days after I finished 200 euro’s worth of RAM/CPU upgrades on it.

The video card, bought new a few years back, had the bright idea to blow and die; leaving the rig with basic video output, 1280×1024, that looks like shit on my HD 1900×1080 monitor.

It was worth the updgrades, or so I thought (presently I’m more like pissed off for blowing cash on a zombie), but now, no way I’ll also fork cash for a new GPU. I guess I’ll set it to be accessible through remote desktop for data access and leave it as is as a server of sorts, and use my laptop until the new rig is finished.

Fuck. Ah well, it had a good life.

[edit 20090619] I found a cheap AGP card eventually. Basic, Asus Ati HD3450, 512Megs, enough to run my 19″ and 24″ HD screens without a hitch. Cool.

I’ve been thinking about what I will write next and I think I might start soon. In French this time. It is not a sci-fi story, at least not as much as the previous project, it’s more like a mix of light sci-fi and noir cop story. I never actually tried to write anything in French, save for a short Battle Royale fanfic, because I was doing sci-fi and it always sounds better in English.

I wonder how this will sound. It’s going to be rather interesting.

Still planning the story arc first though. This time I want to cover the basics before I get started.

So it’s official, Thief 4 will be Eidos Montreal’s second major title after Deus Ex 3.

I remain skeptical. I love Thief and I like Thief 2 very much, and Thief 3 was, well, almost as disappointing as Invisible War. Not as much, as it was more refined, but still way below the first two.

It’s a bit like DX. What I heard about DX3 tends to indicate it will be rather different from the original in major areas such as gameplay, in spite of Eidos’s claims to the contrary. Of course, we’ll just have to wait until the game ships to find out. Now Thief 4? I read about the pre-dev concepts Ion Storm Austin was working on shortly before they went under and it was an interesting take, redoing the original game in a modern setting. Obviously though, given it’s only just been officially announced, there’s no info yet as to what direction they’re going for at Eidos.

As always, we cross fingers and hope they won’t fuck it up. If they don’t pull a Levine and actually keep their promises on Deus Ex 3, a fourth Thief game will be more than welcome. (No offense, Mr. Levine, but BioShock while fun in its own right was not Shock)

It just came to my attention that the Red Bull Air Race is coming back to Barcelona next October. It’s like Formula 1 but not boring, because it’s F1 WITH PLANES. I attended the 2006 edition and it’s a fantastic show, packed with thrilling aerobatics and stunts. Awesome.

Perfect for a plane nut such as myself. No way I’m missing this, no power in the ‘verse will stop me.

It’s quite ironic that I should come across this page right after throwing RW out the airlock.

On Finishing
Show the potential employer that you know how to finish something. Starting something is easy; it’s the fun part. Finishing a project that you’re completely sick of is the hard part. The last 10% of game development is the hardest. If you’re going to remember anything from this document, take away this: The best developers in this business know how to finish and ship. If you don’t have this ability then all of your skills are useless.

That’s two projects left unfinished now. (The other one being The Shock Project.) I haven’t given up yet on other Shock 2 mods but they’re dangerously close to the same status. As far as writing is concerned, future is yet uncertain.

Well at least the websites are running.

Funny, I hadn’t had a multi-post day in ages =)

Well.

Looks like it’s spring cleaning time. After putting Rift War in deep freeze, I thought that freylia the website could also use a make-over, and since I had been playing with the idea for some time, I migrated everything to WordPress. Doing so, I wanted to update the title and visuals, and since I’m playing the sax, I went for a New York jazz club theme. Let me know what you think. If you want.

As far as I can see everything works as before.

I looked for a few notes I scribbled down last winter outlining a concept noir-ish story I was thinking about. I think I might give it a go, now I’ve jettisoned the other project. We’ll see how it goes.

So, not great, but feeling a bit better. Still think my life’s shit though. And I miss my cat terribly.

There must be some kind of way out of here
Said the joker to the thief
There’s too much confusion
I cant get no relief

I’m feeling like shit and I can’t shake it off. Everything feels wrong.
 

It was Jurassic Park who gave me the original idea for my story. It was a sci-fi, time travel thing mixing several concepts found in stories I read around that time, involving aliens finding dinosaurs, then something weird happened and they discovered that Earth was their original homeworld and humans were their distant cousins. Bear with me, it was 1993 and I was 13.

I’m glad I didn’t go with this, because as I’m telling it now it sounds quite a bit like an alternate version of Battlestar Galactica. Which I discovered with the miniseries in 2004. So, total coincidence.

Anyways, I digress. Then it morphed into something else, as I read more fleshed out stuff. My main reference for scifi-slash-space opera so far was the Star Wars universe, but then I found out about Asimov’s Foundation series and the Galactic Empire, and it opened a whole new world of possibilities.

I fleshed out a few bits of my own, created races, languages. Even invented an alphabet. Created spaceships. The main one, the gazillionth evolution of my first ‘93 draft schematics, was my masterpiece and I eventually called it Freylia. I finalized its form in 2001, with a slight redesign for a sister ship in 2007. I added another, smaller one, threw in a rogue gentleman thief, a mix between Han Solo and Garrett. Cool.

The backstory, the main story arc, that was pretty much set up, I wanted to tell the rise and fall of my own empire, the Union, through a series of separatists attacks and eventually a big war. Somehow the whole terrorism subplot didn’t sound like a great idea after 2001, but I eventually kept it in. It was necessary. The story itself, the real book, I started it for NaNoWriMo 2006. And I won that contest, and almost finished the first volume (of three planned).

Since then I’ve stalled.

As much as I try to get back to it, I seem to be in a creative desert island surrounded by an ocean of cliché. I managed to get around one third of my story done, but it’s so incomplete…

I got a draft for part 1 nearly 90% done, part 2 I started but it didn’t go anywhere, and I may end up scrapping it entirely. The third one… Don’t even mention it.

I considered turning part 1 into a TV pilot but that went south.

You’d think after 14 years in development I’d have more consistent results. So right now, I’m considering putting it all in a box and putting that box in a closet, and start anew. No more Freylia. No more Union. Perhaps not even sci-fi, perhaps a different story altogether.

Remember that quote I posted some time ago?
“Writing is like driving at night in the fog, you can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

And sometimes you’ve got to admit you’re in a dead-end street. Right now, that’s what I see through my windshield.

‘Cos I’m sitting in a nice ‘73 Centurion convertible here. But I must have taken a wrong turn, I thought I was on Main Street, but now I’m just facing a wall. The engine rattles, then dies. I try to turn the ignition but no luck.

Gas tank’s empty.

I put my hat on, light up a cig and get out of the car to stretch my legs. It’s been a long drive. Town looks deserted. I realize I don’t know where I am. I take a last look at the worn leather seats. It’s been a nice ride but… Time to call it quits.

I walk away.

It says something about TV quality when the most interesting things to watch are Hannah Montana and Mr T’s Flavorwave Turbo infomercial.

The 2009 edition of “Meet your dentist” fucking hurts.
 

Boobs are great. I love them. I wish we could spend more time together… I mean with you dear, of course.
Unfortunately there’s this nasty little thing called cancer that destroys them and kills people. And there are people who fight this thing. With their brains. With their will. And if nothing else is available, some do with their wallet.

I know someone, well, not in person, only from Internet, but I’ve learned to appreciate and respect her, and every year she walks with many other women to raise awareness and cash to help the big brains fund their research so that we can get rid of this pesky crab. It’s called the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

Cancer affects millions of people all over the world, and we need to put an end to it. The money donated will be managed and disbursed by the Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade to help provide access to care for those that most need it, to fund educational programs, raise awareness, to accelerate research into new treatments and to find potential cures.

Many thanks to Scott Kurtz, author of PVP Online, for his kind permission to use his work.
 

He is comfortable and his family is looking forward to him making a full recovery.

Cheating death for 30+ years, and still kicking. Man, this guy’s a survivor if I ever saw one.
 

It’s no secret that I love Cara Dillon. I’m a total fan, and frankly, who wouldn’t be? She’s got the most beautiful voice I’ve ever heard since Katie McMahon (of Riverdance fame).
So it’s no wonder that I recently got The Redcastle Sessions ¹, her new hour-long DVD featuring several of her best-known songs alongside new ones, some of them featured on her most recent CD Hill of Thieves ². The performaces are interspersed with an extensive interview about her background, her family and roots, with Ireland’s unique views as backdrop.

Reminds me I have to go back there some day, I love that country.

Anyway, back to my subject. One of these songs is If I prove false, which has become my new favourite ballad. Featuring guitarist/singer John Smith, it’s just perfect, Smith’s deeper voice contrasts Dillon’s beautifully, plus the simple, discrete guitar melody accompanies it without intruding too much.

I could listen to it forever.

Listen and enjoy.

¹The Redcastle Sessions at Amazon UK
²Hill of Thieves at Amazon UK
 

Picturesque is back in business
Sorry for the four month hiatus!
 

Now is inconsequential and infinite. It cannot be perceived nor defined nor touched. It is the floating moment. It is a promise and a curse. It is what you make of it, the unforgiving minute. It is already gone.
 

Admittedly I’m a fan, but the series finale for Battlestar Galactica was all kind of awesome and a very fitting end to one of the finest pieces of sci-fi I’ve ever had the pleasure to watch.

Here be spoilers. You’ve been warned. I’ll be rambling quite a bit, too, since it’s all about wrapping up.

Since they were building up on that for the last few episodes and since it was, after all, the series finale, I was expecting to see the Old Girl, a.k.a. the Bucket, a.k.a. our (t)rusty old Battlestar Galactica go down in flames, and since they were about to go after the Bad Cylons in one last assault, I assumed she wouldn’t survive the trip.
Turns out after all these years she could still hold her own in a battle against a whole Cylon Colony, although, granted, with the slight advantage of having a Cylon hooked up to her mainframe and jamming the enemy’s own. I’m somewhat suprised she got so little damage from a head-on collision but I’ll be willing to let it pass cause that maneuver was just cool. And they weren’t that far from the Colony after all, so relatively minor structural damage is believable, since she’s got a reinforced armor and not a thin titanium hull like a certain Enterprise I know… Okay, it’s a stretch but hey what the hell.

The Opera House, as anyone with half a brain would have guessed by now, turned out to be indeed our very own Galactica, and the reveal was handled beautifully, with the Final Five and everything. Looked great. It’s sad to see the CIC completely gutted though. I was so pleased to see Tory get what she deserved. I was a big Cally fan from way back to the miniseries, and even when she was all whiny and messed-up I was hoping she would somehow get her life back on track. I never forgave Tory for murdering her. Go Chief! It’s called Karma, bitch.

Speaking of baddies, I just loved Cavil’s last moment. “Oh frak!”. It was so in his character. Dean Stockwell nailed it, there was no other way for him to go.

I was less rejoiced by Boomer’s demise, though I could certainly see it coming. She did steal Athena and Helo’s child after all. Then she got second-thought. Changed her mind. Typical of the Eights, this. But as she put it, she made that one last choice count. Good for her, I guess.
I did think Helo was toast, for a moment. They spent quite a bit without showing him onscreen after he was shot, the bastards.

I know that canon now is that Daniel is not Kara’s father but I don’t care. To me it makes sense that he is, and the Finale is not disappointing in one way or another as far as that element is concerned. It makes her connection to the Five more tangible. And even if there are Angels (Head-Baltar and Head-Six), and even if post-Earth Kara herself is not human, it still makes sense that she got the Music from them. Somehow. I wonder how some can think she runs away from Lee. It’s obvious she just vanished once her mission complete. The place was absolutely flat and she was nowhere in sight, there’s no way someone can run that fast. There must be some kind of way outta here, indeed.

One thing puzzles me though. How did they get the info about the location of the Colony? Space is an awful big place to just happen to locate the black hole the Cylons happen to orbit.
Speaking of the Colony, shame about Racetrack. I liked her. Looked like she could survive everything. Well, I guess not. Post-mortem kaboom makes for one hell of a good-bye though.

Speaking of goodbyes, back to Galactica actual. The Bucket’s end was very moving. The way she broke after the jump… woah. I really thought it was the end of it. Sending her into the Sun, in that perfect strike Anders always dreamed of, is a good death. She deserved her retirement.

Roslin too. Lately I had grown tired of Roslin’s presidency, before she got too sick to do anything but get high on painkillers and smoke joints with Adama. But her last moments too were handled beautifully. It’s funny that Adama takes her on a Raptor ride right before she dies (which, by the way, is also a very moving moment), I seem to recall the original ending of Blade Runner also had Deckard and Rachel flying low over green landscapes. I think it’s an interesting parallel, especially when you know the original, unfilmed ending had Rachel die too. (Olmos was in BR, if you’re missing the connection).

Now for the 150,000-years-later jump.
It’s a bit of a WTF, but it’s not that outlandish in the context of the series. I don’t think I’ll see any Cylon-like tech in my lifetime though. Singularity ain’t near enough for that. That said I’m no rocket scientist so who knows…
I don’t take it as a “technology is evil” message, but rather as a “careful with what you do” message.

But above all, as a SCI-FI IS AWESOME message. Battelstar Galactica has ended, and it was one hell of a ride.

So say we all.
 

Whee, let’s all rejoice in unison as freylia.net has finally been transferred. As a direct consequence, I’ll get started on the tech-side of the redesign asap.

Second, I’m more and more thinking that a miniseries format would be better if I actually do end up adapting Rift War to a screenplay. 6-8 episodes, self-contained arc-story within the “season”, HBO-style.

I like that idea.
 

I’m kinda cheating in that I chose to convert the beginning of my first Rift War story to a TV pilot, so I kinda know everything already, pretty much, it’s “only” a matter of medium adaptation.

But that format change…
Story itself should go fine, my main concern is with the aliens. It’s ok in writing, but Star Wars/Trek aliens on TV usually just look ridiculous.

I’m a bit concerned about that. I’m considering turning everything to an alien-less universe.

But that could also be tricky.

We’ll see.

Good thing is I’ve gotten back to my morning writing sessions, and that’s great. Handwriting that is, with a fountain pen. As it should be

Feels good
 

Syfy? SYFY???

What. The. Fuck.
 

This site’s in need of an overhaul. As soon as the domain transfer is done I’ll close shop for a bit and cook something new.

Long overdue.
 

Being a sci-fi fan, geek, whatever, I also can’t stop reading about astronomy, astrophysics, and all that fascinating stuff out there in the stars I can’t even begin to comprehend. Among other things I try to follow the rover missions as much as I can, even though I can be a bit late sometimes.

Recently, I came across a wonderful picture taken by the Spirit on Mars in 2004.

It is the Earth, viewed from the red planet. A tiny dot, barely visible in the dusty martian skies. An awesome and humbling sight which reminded me of another picture, and Sagan’s famous description of it: The pale blue dot.

The only home we’ve ever known.