printed on every t-shirt in this land...

"He's right," Michael said quietly. "Something is watching us."
"When isn't it?" I muttered, glancing around. I didn't see anything. My highly tuned investigative instincts didn't see anything either. I hate feeling like Han Solo in a world of Jedi. "I'm supposed to be the Jedi," I muttered aloud.
...
Mouse pressed up against my leg, and I felt his warning growl vibrating through his chest.
"You said it, Chewie," I told my dog. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

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I followed the trail of smitten fiends. Smiten fiends? Smited fiends? Smoted fiends? Don't look at me. I never finished high school.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

When it comes to intentionally screwing up technology, I've always had a gift.

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I moved my feet in a vague shuffle, and remembered somewhere that when you walked, you moved them alternately. This improved our progress considerably.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

And guess what? Whitney won! (She's a size 10, ladies.)

How was it assimilating into this tight-knit clan of actors?

[Ben] Barnes: When I got the part I got [The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe] DVD and watched all the DVD extras and listened to Georgie [Henley] say, "Oh, Will is like my brother, and Andrew [Adamson] is like the dad when my dad's not there, and it's all lovely." I just thought "Give me a bucket. I don't believe you." Then I walked into the production office on the first day and they were playing table tennis with each other and sitting on each other's laps and sharing ice cream. It was like something out of a Disney film ... boom, boom. [Laughs.] It really was like that, and it was a very family atmosphere on set.

................................................................

How was it adding new cast, like Ben Barnes and Peter Dinklage, to the mix?

[Anna] Popplewell: Ben is really lovely....

Well, obviously, Anna. ;)

the rest of the interview/article

Where's Gumby these days? That's what I'd like to know.

No, I have NO idea where that came from, but I'd still like to know.

And for that matter, how about Beany and Cecil?

Wimsie got me wondering... She said something about the butterfly effect, which is a pretty well-known concept/term. It was in reference to a crazy dream.

So I was wondering, did Ray Brabury have anything to do with it getting that name or did he just happen to use a butterfly/moth in his short story "A Sound of Thunder" because it fit with idea of the theory? It's a What came first? deal.

Wikipedia can be a handy thing. Here's what it says about the origin of the term:
Sensitive dependence on initial conditions was first described in the literature by Jacques Hadamard in 1890[1] and popularized by Pierre Duhem's 1906 book. The idea that one butterfly could have a far-reaching ripple effect on subsequent events seems first to have appeared in a 1952 short story by Ray Bradbury about time travel (see Popular Media below), although the term "butterfly effect" itself is related to the work of Edward Lorenz. In 1961, Lorenz was...

So, apparently Bradbury likely had something to do with the name. :D

And even if he didn't, I'm a loyal fan and will not budge from such a belief. ;)

As I'm 19 pages into Dead Beat, here are some funny Dresden quotes for anyone who may care.


"Gosh...my cat might be a dangerous subversive. Maybe you'd better interrogate him."

Black wizards don't just grow up like toadstools, you know. Someone has to teach them complicated things like summoning demons, ritual magic, and cliched villain dialogue.

Believe it or not, my first instinct isn't always to set things on fire.

Now I had to contend...with...a succubus of the White Court. Or maybe more than one, which for grammatical reasons I hoped was not the case.

"The first thing that went through my mind was something like, Wow her voice is hot. The second was, How the h*** did she catch up to us so quickly?
Oh, and somewhere in there the practical side of me chimed in with, It would be bad to get shot."

[To a black court vampire, not entirely unlike an intelligent zombie] "I'll stop you," I said. "And if I don't, I'll come after you. If you hurt her, I'll kill you so hard your last ten victims will make miraculous recoveries."

"...an utterly gratuitous amount of pain with a side order of whirling stars."

Reason indicated that sticking with long-standing procedure was my best bet. Instinct told me that reason had disappointed me more than once, and that it wasn't thinking in the long term anyway.
Over the years, my instincts and I have gotten cozy.


And honestly, if it wouldn't get old to most of you who haven't read any of the books, I'd be jotting down quotes every so many pages as Dresden's internal monologue AND his banter are just top notch.

Really, really feeling like chocolate is in order. Haven't kept a stash at my desk for a long while now. It's time to take drastic measures (i.e. walk upstairs to see what they have in the vending machine). ;)