Why do people search for some of this stuff?
Okay, I get why people would be looking for "lucy liu porn" or "mariska hargitay porn", but what makes them think they're going to find it here? Last month, my number one hit search term was "lucy liu porn". Doesn't anyone search for "fantasy cartography" and find my site anymore? Or "conlang generator"? Always back to the porn. Sadly, it does increase hits and my Googlerank. Ah, well, there's no accounting for it, I guess. As P.T. Barnum once said, "No one ever got rich overestimating the American people."

Okay, movie hype has reached a "whole new level".
Look , I like Batman. I read the comic books. I watched the original series. I watched all the different cartoons, and still do, when I can manage it. I love the movies. Even the bad ones! But, when <a target="_blank" href="http://www.forbes.com/digitalentertainment/2005/06/20/batman-movies-sup… is running an article about how to be Batman</a>, well, I think we've gone a little to far. Though, they haven't gone as far as HowStuffWorks, who has a <a target="_blank" href="http://www.howstuffworks.com/batsuit.htm">How the Batsuit Works page</a> and a <a target="_blank" href="http://www.howstuffworks.com/batmobile.htm">How the Batmobile Works page</a>.

Well, what the heck, it is Friday, after all. Click on one of the links. They're all good!

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.fantasist.net/scroll/wp-content/images/alien01.jpg"><img alt="Alien Landscape" class="floatright" src="http://www.fantasist.net/scroll/wp-content/images/thumb-alien01.jpg&quot; /></a>Look, I made more art!
I needed a fantasy world to escape into, so I made one. Well, part of one. So far, I'm just experiementing with some stock images, but at least I'm producing things. This<a target="_blank" href="http://www.e-onsoftware.com/">Vue d'Espirit</a> program is really intuitive, for me, and makes great output very easy to produce. Or so I'm told. So far, I've only made really good output, but I see the potential for great. Who knows, one day, someone might actually donate money for the art I produce! Yeah, okay, that might be asking too much, but, still... On the other hand, I've been thinking about saving up the money for a new color printer. Rumor has it that Epson produces archival quality inks for their inkjet printers. In theory, I could use them to produce prints that I could sell. Make a limited number of prints, frame them, and sell them on eBay or, dare I say it, my very own web page!

Okay, this may be fun for a limited number of people...
But, I've "invented" a generator based on the tables found in the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=fantasistnet%26link_code…; title="View product details at Amazon">d20 Past supplement</a> for TSR's, er, Wizards of the Coast's <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=fantasistnet%26link_code…; title="View product details at Amazon">d20 Modern Roleplaying Game</a>. It's from the section on pulp heros. Specifically, it's the table for randomly generating inventions for your pulp-age scientist. Now, fully automated by yours truly.
So, what are you waiting for? Go whip up some <a target="_blank" href="http://www.fantasist.net/inventions.shtml">Pulp Science-Fiction Inventions</a>!

Aw, c'mon, it's Friday, what have you got to lose?

Well, I finished <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=fantasistnet%26link_code…; title="View product details at Amazon">Airtight Willie & Me</a> this weekend. It was actually a fairly good book. Though, as I got further into it, I was a little surprised to see that it was actually a series of not really related stories. The book takes its title from the first story, which is about a scam artist getting out of jail and being scammed himself by his partner. The O. Henry-like irony is actually quite sophisticated. Well, considering the source. Seriously, it's a little strange considering my normal reading, but that's why I chose that book. It's a look at life from a perspective that I will, hopefully, never see or truly understand. It's different. It's a change. And, obviously, based on the length of time it took me to read it, not a very long book, either. I got interested in this book thanks to IceT and an interview he did on MTV. He talked about Iceberg Slim, the author, and how reading his books had inspired Ice to rap. It sounded cool, so... Anyway, it was an interesting change of pace and one I can reccomend, as long as you keep in mind what it is you're reading.
Currently, I'm reading <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=fantasistnet%26link_code…; title="View product details at Amazon">Plot </a>for about the third or fourth time. I go back to this book, and others in this series, when I have trouble writing. So, I read it every few years when I try to start writing again after a long hiatus. That's where I'm at right now, ergo, I'm re-reading selected writing books to try and get jump-started back into a writer's mind. We'll see how we do in the coming months. Writing books are actually one of the few things that I'm likely to read more than once. I have so much to read that it's very unusual for me to go back and re-read anything at all these days.
After that, though, I'll be reading <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=fantasistnet%26link_code…; title="View product details at Amazon">Pale Fire</a> by Vladimir Nabokov. The description interests me because a fictional language is at the heart of the story and I've long had a fascination for invented languages. The story centers on a man who has written an "epic poem" about a kingdom that doesn't seem to exist, but that he's created in such detail that he has a language for it. It's a little strange, and not at all how I think of Nabokov, so, I'm looking forward to it.

I love <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=fantasistnet%26link_code…; title="View product details at Amazon">Dune</a>.
I love the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.jitterbug.com/origins/dune.html">Dune Encyclopedia</a> even more. I have a now very rare, hard-back copy of this wonderful book, but it is sadly out of print. I treasure my copy and will, on occasion, simply thumb through the pages randomly reading entries. The imagination that generated the source material for the Dune universe, and the creative people who created the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.jitterbug.com/origins/dune.html">Dune Encyclopedia</a> are equally brilliant, in my opinion.
In any case, you can get a fairly good PDF of the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.jitterbug.com/origins/dune.html">Dune Encyclopedia</a> for free by simply clicking on the link. It's worth the 10 megabyte download. Trust me.

Another Christopher Moore novel down.
I really like his work, in general, and this one was no different. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=fantasistnet%26link_code…; title="View product details at Amazon">Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings</a> is about, well, whales. Of course, in typical Christopher Moore fashion, it's also about a whole lot more. And, it's pretty complicates, a little convoluted, and more than a little funny. But, it's a dry funny. The basic plot follows a whale researcher, his research assistant, a photographer, his girlfriend, his ex-wife, their moderately rich benefactor, and a Rasta-surfer gopher as they try to discover the meaning behind the whale's songs and who might want to stop them from finding it. Moore hits all the big themes here. Everything from whale conservation to loyalty to sex and the meaning of life. It's all in there, just like almost every one of his books.
It was a good book, but, not quite as good as I remember <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=fantasistnet%26link_code…; title="View product details at Amazon">Practical Demonkeeping</a> or <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=fantasistnet%26link_code…; title="View product details at Amazon">Lamb : The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal</a> or even <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=fantasistnet%26link_code…; title="View product details at Amazon">Bloodsucking Fiends</a>, but it was still good. I like his style. Dry wit and a slightly skeptical view of the world that just seem to fit together well when telling a story of such strangeness that even the characters have a hard time suspending disbelief. But, he does always manage to pull it off, somehow. And, any of his work is a great, light read that's perfect for the beach.

What if Darth Vader were a chick?
Okay, so I saw "Revenge of the Sith" last week Sunday afternoon with a friend and it was good. Not great, but, considering we all knew how it would end anyway, it was pretty good. Special effects were first rate and seeing it on the IMAX screen was, well, like the "old days" of movie going. Well worth the $10.
Anyway, someone said something the other day that got me thinking... How different would all these movies have been if Anakin Skywalker had been, say "Anne" or "Annabelle" Skywalker? How much more tragic would that scene in Episode V have been when Darth told Luke the truth? "Luke, I'm your mother!" After all, mothers are supposed to be the source of all comfort and care and light. Imagine the horror of your own mother turning to the Dark Side and trying to twist you to a path of hate, fear and anger. What a powerful image that is!
Now, do any of you faithful readers, either of you, dare to re-write the Star Wars story with that one twist? I dare you.

Now, this is what I call "assault and battery"!
Ever wanted to build your very own trebuchet? How about a mangonel? Well, now you can! Just head over to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.trebuchet.com/plans.html">How To Build A Catapult</a> and go nuts. They've got lots of plans using different materials and even different sizes of devices. There are a bunch of links to other resources, too, including a link to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.catapultkits.com/">CatapultKits</a&gt;, where, obviously, you can buy kits and save a lot of hassle.

Anyway, it's a fun, if somewhat violent, hobby and it's Friday, so click the links!

<a target="_blank" href='http://www.fantasist.net/scroll/wp-content/images/tropicalbeachscifi2.j…; alt='Watery Canyon' ><img class="floatleft" src='http://www.fantasist.net/scroll/wp-content/images/thumb-tropicalbeachsc…; alt='TropicalBeach-SciFi2' /></a>Not just water and rocks!
Nope, this time, I included some free science-fiction objects with their "skins" mapped differently. In their original forms, they weren't shiny enough to be science-fiction. If it's not sparkly and shiny enough, it just can't be high-tech! (Hmm, I should make sure my brother in R&D at Motorola knows that...)
Anyway, I created this because someone who reads my site complained that my digital art was all a little too antediluvian for his taste. And, I have to admit, it all did seem somewhat, well, "prehistoric". Now, keep in mind, these pictures are all done with the FREE version of <a target="_blank" href="http://www.e-onsoftware.com/">Vue d'Espirit</a> which is several revs behind the full version and severly lacking in features. Also, all the good free stuff is done for the newer versions, so my subject matter is fairly restricted. Still, I think I do a fair job, all things considered. I can only imagine what I could accomplish if I spent the money on the full version. Someday, perhaps, someday....