Friday Flix: Adventure Time

What time is it? Adventure Time! Not that I need to convince many of you to watch Adventure Time. But since I got the first season on DVD and it’s what I’ve been watching, here we go.

I remember way back in the day when Adventure Time was nothing more than a sample Nicktoon of 7 minutes or so. Yep, that’s right, Adventure Time was originally a Nickelodeon product. But because the execs at Nick were a bunch of patoots and couldn’t see the potential in the short, it was Cartoon Network that gobbled the goodness up.

And is anyone really surprised it’s Cartoon Network that took a chance on Adventure Time? If there’s one thing I really miss not having cable, it’s the Food Network. But an almost tie would have to be Cartoon Network. Shoot, I remember when CN was just a fledgling network too. Good times…

Anyway, back to Adventure Time. What is it about? From IMDB.com

A human boy and his brother – a magical dog – set out to become righteous adventurers in the Land of Ooo.

To be honest, this show is very absurdist in its approach to plot—a bit like the Simpsons. But having been a film school kiddie, the thing is you start to feel like you’ve seen everything, so something like Adventure Time comes as a breath of fresh air. I like the absurdism because life generally doesn’t make much sense either, at least while you’re in the middle of living it.

To give you another reference, it’s kind of like the kiddie version of Napoleon Dynamite style humor. Stuff just happens, often in strange or unexpected ways. Of course for Finn and Jake, it’s far more adventurous.

Meeting Notes 11

It’s been a long while since I went to a meeting (thankfully) but sometimes they must happen, and here was the product of that time. I think some of it needs explanation.

Let’s start with the obvious. I got the first season of Adventure Time on DVD, so Jake and Finn were certainly on the brain a lot all last week. Jake was tough, because I was doing this all from memory, but Finn is easy peasy.

At the top, you may have noticed the Fairy Especially. This was inspired by Kate’s Engrish post. I was still giggling after reading it and tried to draw something that she and her husband summoned after reading the back of a crazy Engrish doll’s package. (Seriously, if that’s not enough enticement to get over to her blog, there’s something wrong with you).

And of course the rock guitar represents all the rock n’ roll that happened over the weekend as I finally found time to pick up my least good brand Fender guitar (Squier). Hey, it was cheap and it sounds great. Works for me.

Thank goodness I have something to keep me sane in long boring meetings. I have brainstormed for stories before, but I find doodling both distracts you and oddly enough, keeps you paying attention.

What do you think? Did I get Finn and Jake spot on? Did the Fairy Especially visit you after you read the incantation? What do you do during boring meetings or even boring conversation?

Row80 & Pitch Wars News!

I’m so sorry, you guys. I’m soooo late in putting out this post. It’s been a busy day, both on the net and IRL. I don’t have a picture for you to look at today, but there are plenty of entertaining things below. And big news.  First the goals:

• Write at least 3 short stories intended for publication.  I’ll probably try my hand at several more than three, but the hope is to find three gemstones among the rocks.
  On hiatus.

• Read the helpful books to prepare me for the editing fest that will be late November early December on SHADE.
  Still working on Story. It’s been kind of busy lately, but if I can find a few spare hours I’m sure I can polish it off this week.

• Have read all 201 available Anton Chekhov’s short stories, sprinkled with Hemingway and Bradbury.
  I’ve read 50 of 201 Chekhov short stories. No new progress.

• Polish SHADE to pure awesomeness.  I’m still under 98,000 words with all the editing I was able to do, but there’s big Pitch Wars news coming below.

• Don’t Dessert December. So it’s my co-workers fault. No seriously! They brought in a froyo machine that will be running until the 21st. But at least it’s froyo, right? Right?! Aaaaaah!

• The Holiday Book Read! Okay, Pitch Wars teams have been announced, so now that it’s only medium stress to edit and not super high stress (at least it is right now), I’m fairly certain I can squeeze in a couple books. I’ll have to go over my library queue and see which books are the lucky ones.

AND NOW AN ANNOUNCEMENT

Pitch Wars teams were announced this morning and I am pleased happy super-di-dooper ridiculously excited to announce that I’ve been selected as a mentee! My mentor is Marieke Nijkamp and I think we’re about as good a match as they come. We geek out over the same things, and most importantly, she’s excited about helping me. We’re going to pwn this contest!

When I read the email early this morning, I immediately jumped up and did this.

And then I might have done a little bit of this.

But I think I’ve got it contained now—at least while anyone at work is looking.

Yeah, I’m super, super, super excited about this and soooo glad I get to work with Marieke. I think this will be a lot of fun. Marieke and I have a team motto. It goes something like:

I’ll keep you update on our Pitch Wars progress. Right now we’re in polishing stage. Marieke will help me polish up SHADE as well as prepare a pitch she’ll send to participating agents in January.

How are your goals going? Any fabulous news from your end? What do you think of our team motto? Feel free to cheer us on via Twitter under the hashtag #pitchwars  You can follow Marieke here.

I’m off to have some more celebratory froyo! Woot!