Dogs

My sister-in-law had one of her dogs die last week.  It was pretty sad.  He was a happy little pup.  I wasn't there when he "went."  He died in an animal hospital and sister was in the same kennel with him, so he didn't die alone.  But my sister-in-law didn't get to see him befrore he died.  It wasn't even my dog and it me pretty hard.  I guess I'm all soft and squishy because I've got all daughters and they cry over everything, and I've got two dogs who are needy little chihuahuas, or at least half chihuahua, cuz I won't have full blooded ones, and they get excited over everyon who comes in the door, and they're sleeping on the bed, while I blog, and tweet, and write down notes for story ideas, and watch TV, and read.  I guess what I'm saying is, I love my dogs.

Birthday

The little woman's birthday is on Thursday.  I'm pretending I forgot, but I got a gift card for shoes, and I'm trying to see about getting her dinner from one of her favorite restaurant and bring it home.  The plan is to take the day off and pretend I went off to work for the day, till she goes to work, then I sneak back in and nap for a while, and get things ready.  I'm so clever.

So...

There's been something wrong with my brakes, my tires, my transmissions, an oxygen sensor, and I had to get my car smoged for stupid California car registration.  Its stupid I'm spending something like $2,000 on car repairs.  Christmas is coming and the wife's birthday is this month too.  I'm gonna pretend I've forgotten it and surprise her with dinner and a gift.  She doesn't read this Pulitzer Prize worthy blog, so I'm sure I'm not spoiling the surprise.  I'm working my tail off not even to get ahead, but to just break even these days.  I did manage to fit in some writing this week, and turn an important corner.  For a while this story I'm working on was just progessing along, but now its starting to turn sinister.  The evil part of my villian is sort of known already in earlier parts of the story, but while his intentions or feelings have been sort of partially revealed, the actions he's going to take get what he wants are really starting to take off.  He's going to be violent, destructive, and schemeing, and hopefully realistic.  Villians are tougher in movies, TV, and books these days, it makes them more realistic and more believable, and that's what I'm going for.  This guy is an amalgamation of things, and people I've come across.  In many ways this story is me fighting my demons, my past, and myself, and I think, its evident how serious you take a fictional battle, when you personalize that battle.

Agents of SHIELD vs. Gotham

This week I saw Gotham and the Season 3 premiere of Agents of Shield.  I'd like to think I'm unbiased in this, but everyone has a bias when they write their opinion.  I'm a huge Batman fan, I've got comics, and collected stories, and I even have a Batman Christmas ornament, an action figure, and a Batman blanket I got from the kid section at Walmart for my recliner at home.  It seems to me though that Marvel takes their properties far more seriously, than DC Comics does.  The Whedons keep things connected and realistic.  Casting is excellent, and with some very small mentionins of politics involved, its relatively apolitical which is a good thing, because they don't anger one side of the other, and can keep a larger fan base.  Agents of Shield seems quick paced because its getting a lot of action, whereas Gotham seems quick because they're trying to cram so many things into one episode.  Gotham while clearly not the campy Batman show, actually reminded me of that old show for some reason.  There's too many psychotics.  It got confusing, and frankly after seeing one police commissioner get killed in The Dark Knight, seeing another one get killed in Gotham, was redundant.
Agents of Shield seemed more cohesive.  The Whedons have a solid grip on good storytelling and can mingle TV and movies into one fluid story.  I think DC has had a lot of problems, though The Dark Knight trilogy was a tremendous step in the right direction, it seems to be a backtracking with Zach Synder casting Ben Affleck as Batman and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor.  Its bad when fans cringe at a movie they still won't be able to see till next year.  It seems to me that success of Agents of Shield is great storytelling and the feel that you're watching an hour long movie each week, not an hour long TV show.  You feel like you're witnessing real events, with Agents of Shield, like I'm participating in events by watching them, but wth Gotham I knew I was watching a story so to speak.  I didn't get lost in it.  I was just watching it.  Agents of Shield has the capacity for making you forget reality, Gotham just reminds you you're still living in reality.  Though I will say this, the kid playing Bruce Wayne on Gotham is likelier a better Bruce than Ben Affleck will be.