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COTTON THISTLE CLEARANCE
Random musings from the noggin' of Knolltrey
(Best viewed on a monitor running Mozilla Firefox, with a brain running on a case of Grolsh...)
Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Of the Loneliness and the Glory
Mood:
 special
Topic: General
Updates aren't exactly one-a-day lately, huh? Part of that's 'cause I've been vacationing in fabulous Las Vegas for the past several days (this also explains why I haven't yet polished up my latest chapter of TYPERS, 'Spiders and Sharks', but I am still working on it... somewhat...) Speaking of 'working', isn't it amazing the work a little stream of water can do, given a couple billion years? 
I took a little trip into the Grand Canyon today (...and not exactly on a burrow...) The scenery is fantastic: a good mix of extreme beauty coupled with a sense of quiet isolation. That's kinda the idea I have in mind for a region in the world of 'Typers' that I call the 'Dead Lands': the vast desert lands left broken and sterile after the humans' anti-BYDO nuclear strike of 2069. My main character, Justin Storm, is gonna have something of an intellectual 'come to Jesus' moment in that region, where he meets some of the natives (the technologically-regressive 'Dead Landers'). Around the same time my main female character, Chenine Chovert, is gonna have a similar experience out in deep space, in a place called 'Hansha-Furste'. Their experiences will affect and be affected by facets of each's personality: Justin's feelings of isolation and disconnectedness from the flesh-and-blood humans all around him mirrors the condition of the land around him, but at the same time he is taught that the desert also springs forth with abundant life... The only question is: just what kind of fruit is born of that situation, and how bitter are the seeds? (He also learns about an old tribal legend dealing with mysterious, angelic beings they call the 'NOVANJO'...) Eh: this talk is all academic, as the chapters are a ways away. They'll undergo three revisions in my head tonight alone... But, still: the desert sands hold untold beauty, just as they also hold incomparable ugliness.
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 2:30 AM ADT
Sunday, 8 July 2007
It's a Magical World
Mood:
 spacey
Topic: General
The Seven Wonders of the World has officially undergone revision. Not a bad list, really. For movie fans, it's a real treat to see the Treasury at Petra make the list (famously introduced to the world by one Dr. Indiana Jones.) The list does, however, smack of an anti-continental bias in favor of Latin America. Being Christian myself, I'm pleased that Christ the Redeemer made it into the list, but is ANYBODY convinced that a fairly tall statue on a mountaintop is any match for Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza? All Glory and Honor to God... but it's really not. And the Christ statue's been around for a little over 150 years. The Great Pyramid has been around for FOUR-THOUSAND YEARS, and will likely still stand long after the Christ statue falls from the heights of Corcovado (it's simple logistics...) I'd be inclined to even rate the comparatively-diminuitive Sphinx as more deserving of a spot: it should have 'nosed' out the others. Sorry. Any list of the world's greatest wonders that neglects Ancient Egypt is not quite right in the head... Eh, I should be pleased the the world-media is actually showing something of a PRO-Christian bias in the news for once in their current lifetime.
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 2:55 PM ADT
Friday, 6 July 2007
Next Stop: The Planet that Never Was
Mood:
 energetic
Topic: Pseudoscientific Musings
Art is now officially imitating life: we're going to Ceres! I've had a soft spot for that little 'king of the pebbles' for a long time now. The poor baby would've been a mighty terrestrial planet if it wasn't for Jupiter's mean ol' gravitational influence keeping all the pieces apart (so go the theories, anyway...) Unlike the frosty ol' Kuiper Belt Objects and the lonely Scattered Disc Objects, Ceres stood a damn good chance of growing up big and healthy, but instead it is what it is... Also of Note: Some Chenine-y decentness born of boredom:  And a backgrounded version that probably needs lighting fix and contrast tone-down (But luckily I don't care). The background here is a hue-altered picture of Mandel's Angel Nebula: 
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 12:05 PM ADT
Updated: Friday, 6 July 2007 4:12 PM ADT
Thursday, 5 July 2007
Random Signs of the Apocalypse
Mood:
 quizzical
Topic: A Hello to Arms
-- Here he comes: box-office disaster! It's a flop upon wheels!-- This is a bad, bad, BAD idea... Look, it should go without saying that adapting animated programs into live-action shows is a no-go; it's almost as bad as the trash we get from Video Game Adaptations (but this is coming from a guy who's writing a novel series based on a shoot 'em up, so whatever...) It's bad enough that they're going down this path with Neon Genesis Evangelion, but SPEED RACER? C'mon. And the androgynous, creepy Wachowski boys are helming it!?? You remember them, right? They made that one really good movie, and then phoned in those other two extremely bad ones? If American producers are short on ideas (and they are) why don't they stick to ripping off British TV shows and leave the god-damned anime alone; there are REASONS these stories are told in animated format in the first place, knuckleheads. The day American film studios finally 'get' the fact that animation IS a valid art form the Earth'll probably be a dead wasteland void of any intelligent life (just like Hollywood, except much hotter. Haha...) *Sigh* I just wonder how long it'll be before we see this preview: "AND STARRING HALEY JOEL OSMENT as Shinji Ikari!"...
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 1:38 PM ADT
Updated: Thursday, 5 July 2007 1:45 PM ADT
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
Your favorite planet sucks...
Mood:
 mischievious
Topic: Pseudoscientific Musings
More proof that Pluto sucks... Honestly, I've never understood all those 'Keep Pluto a Planet' wankers that wanna lump this rogue potato into the lofty family of proper planets. It can't even compare to normal-sized MOONS, for god's sake. Here's a to-scale image, along with Pluto's thoughts on the matter: 
And don't you tell me 'oh, but Pluto has moons, too!' Charon is about as big around as your fist, if you happen to be a three-fingered midgit... Now that that's settled, let's hear some more about this 'Eris' planetoid; it sounds like THAT might be more of a candidate for planet. In short: Pluto Sucks.
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 5:04 PM ADT
Monday, 2 July 2007
Thank you! Come again!
Mood:
 a-ok
Topic: General
Now we can all enjoy a little slice of Springfield. I bet they got the idea to do this when they discovered that over half of all 7-Eleven store clerks were already named 'Apu'... Kidding! kidding...
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 6:32 PM ADT
Updated: Monday, 2 July 2007 6:33 PM ADT
Sunday, 1 July 2007
That 'Antithesis' is one bad mother-- shut yo mouth!
Mood:
 caffeinated
Topic: General
How much mileage can I get out of the same decent rendering of my main villain? A bit, as it turns out. In my next chapter he's gonna be caught on candid camera during a bit of a horrific slaughter on a dwarf planet called 'Ceres'... Contrary to popular thought, the BYDO don't have an actual 'taste' for human blood. That's just Antithesis's thing...
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 10:40 PM ADT
Updated: Sunday, 1 July 2007 10:45 PM ADT
Saturday, 30 June 2007
FUCK YOU, ISLAMI-FASCIST SHITHEADS
Mood:
 on fire
Topic: A Hello to Arms
Looks like the sand-eating, 4th-century-old shitfaced towelheads are at it again. This time they've hit Scotland. (Okay, yes: it's Glasgow, but that's STILL technically Scotland...) Let's say this again, you 'religion of peace' practitioners: Fuck you. You want Sharia law worldwide? FUCK YOU. We will NOT live in the 4th century, like you all do, and I SORELY regret that 20th century devices like machinery, electricity, and technology ever managed to trickle into your back-ass-water countries. (DISCLAIMER: Shane knows a few American Muslim practitioners, they're friends, and they're spot-on okay, but about 90-percent of 'em worldwide are really NOT...) Fuck you: Arab street. You are not the future: you are the distant past, and the best you can ever hope for is annihilation in a full-scale West-vs-Middle East conflict (in 'Typers' I call that the "ARAB WAR", and if you're wondering, it does NOT end well for you...) May Allah have mercy on you all.
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 2:46 PM ADT
Friday, 29 June 2007
High-brow literature at its finest.
Mood:
 happy
Topic: General
I've had a couple small 'Little Nemo' books lying around for awhile now (that's LITTLE NEMO, not the guy who built the Nautilus...) and my new one came in the mail just the other day: 
This baby's got it all: fairly high-quality reprints and TONS of 'em. It's not nearly as gigantic or detail-oriented as the stunning 'So Many Splendid Sundays' edition, but it doesn't cost 100+ dollars, either... ...affordability is a spicy aphrodisiac, after all...
I guess my attitute towards this dated little comic strip are clear: 'Best... Comic... Ever..' (with 'Calvin and Hobbes' a close second....) Oh, and just while we're on the subject: BEST... VIDEO GAME... EVER! Ironically, as a kid, I wasn't too thrilled about the movie adaptation from which the game sprang. Eh, to each his own... Shazama Pajama.
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 12:01 AM ADT
Updated: Saturday, 30 June 2007 2:47 PM ADT
Thursday, 28 June 2007
What's good for the goose-steppers ain't good for the ganders...
Mood:
 irritated
Topic: Random Political Diatribe
More 'fishines' from one of Uncle Sam's leading exporters. I rather loathe Communist China. Yes, I'm an American, and yes, I LOOOVE Capitalism and yes, I'm somewhat tainted by patriotic zeal, but look: China is a country that absolutely HATES open discourse, and a country that still calls the Tiananmen Square Massacre a 'non-issue'. Try finding ANY dissatisfaction with the Jackboot thugs of the Communist Party on the 'People's' Daily. Now these shoddy goosesteppers are literally poisoning the planet, both with carbon emissions (of which they have easily outstripped the US) and their blatantly toxic and dangerous products, from deadly dog food to Toxic 'Thomas the Toy Trains' and antifreeze-addled toothpastes. And though I may loathe Red China, I reserve my REAL hatred for North Korea. If the Chinese government is a brutal thug, then North Korea's leaders are a bunch of genocidal psychopaths who literally leave their people in the 'dark'. Those wackos in the North are also China's 'little brothers', too: so the very existence of a North Korea is another reason to hate the Chinese leadership. In my book I include the 'Sino-Confederacy' as a somewhat outcast branch of the greater 'Allied Military'. They're kind of like the creepy kid in the back of the classroom that spends all his time drawing decapitated bunny rabbits and eating paste: no one dares approach 'em, and no one really wants to. By the time of 'Typers' I have South Korea overrun by the North (seeing's how North America was wiped off the map by a fallen 'Bydo Mass'. Without those 'evil' Americans to protect 'em, I've no doubt that the Southies will fall to their 'friendly' Northern neighbor. Anyway: I envision 'Unified Korea' as being opposed by a tiny island nation of free-living Koreans (think Taiwan, if you like) that I call the 'Airen'. None of this has come up in my story much, but I expect to dedicate a good-sized story-arc to the Tears' Shower Squadron's unpleasant run-in and dealings with such an expanded nightmare state. The kind of evils embodied in North Korea's setup, as well as China's business practices, are far more vile than anything I could image the Bydo Empire perpetrating. And now I'll just step off this soapbox before I fall...
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 4:35 PM ADT
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