New Terry Pratchett Novel Out Sept 1

I've only read the first of the Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men.  Tiffany is a young witch, with Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax in the background.  I like the more urban setting Tiffany is in, which seems more like this century than the far off world of Discworld.

I must say, without any doubt, that Terry Pratchett makes the best women characters.  I think it's because he includes so many of them, and they're all different.  Magrat (sic) was the romantic, a little squishy, but rose to the occasion when her kingdom was in trouble.  Nanny Ogg is the frumpy mum that always has something up her sleeve (and quite possibly down her bosom, too).

Ah, and Esmeralda aka Granny Weatherwax.  She might have a stick up her ass most of the time, but if the world was going to end, you knew who could stop it. 


And I love the Nac Mac Feegle.  Who doesn't want little blue psychotic "individuals" at their beck and call?


Ahem, I do believe I am dithering at this point.  I could go on all day about how much I love Terry Pratchett.  And his books.  And his movies.  And the animations.   Siiiiggggghhhhhhh.

Happy Hogswatch/Christmas/Boxing Day & All That Rubbish

It had been my intent to post a drawing of "Happy Hogswatch" for Christmas, in reference to the movie Hogfather.  That didn't happen (obviously). When I realized that wasn't going to happen, I decided to post a drawing for Boxing Day, with someone boxing a kangeroo(ala Mighty Boosh).  That didn't happen either.  So I'll just say this: I hope everyone had a nice holiday, stuffed themselves with too much food that you shouldn't be eating anyway, slept way too much, and otherwise did absolutely nothing on your to-do list (quite like me!).

In the spirit of the Holidays (with a capital H), I want to say thank you to my family, who lie to me and say they read my blog. I want to give a big thanks to Steve Napierski, over at Dueling Analogs for sending me literally close to 90% of my blog traffic.  (I think the other 10% is me checking to make sure the blog hasn't mysterious disappeared.)  And of course, thank you to the readers; to the American audience, I hope I've inspired you to watch British Telley; and to the Brits, thanks for setting the record straight on a few things.  I'm still waiting to hear back about tea time.

Happy Holidays, see you all in 2010!

Ramsay's Cook-A-Long & Californication

Sounded like a dream come true for me.  I waffled between having my husband make fun of me, or having the chance to "cook along" with Gordon Ramsay. Then I realized they were airing it starting at 9 pm.  Are you people crazy?! I'd be starved by then!

I've always wished that Ramsay would have a new reality show, teaching people who "don't know anything" to cook.  Unfortunately, I quickly realized, I wouldn't be in the show either because it would be British based, and there would be many more people deserving (and I don't have a passport); or, if it was American, it would be full of the crazy Californian people that have reality tv down to an art.  And as a note, whenever you look at American telly and go, "what the hell happened to them?" The answer is California.  California happened.

Okay, I'm a little mean when it comes to California.  First of all, I'm from Oregon, and there's a rivalry between the two states.  Californians have a bad reputation (sometimes true, sometimes not) of coming to Oregon to "get away from it all" and then change the area to be everything they left behind.  And they drive house prices up.  It's complicated.

Back to the point, I really hate California when it comes to tv.  Everyone on TV here all look perfect: makeup is spotless (and sometimes in areas you didn't know needed makeup), all clothes have been fitted to that individual (and then you never see it again on the show) and all the women are, quite literally, close to a size 2.  A size 2 over here means having a waist of 20-24 inches.  Like when I was 12.  And all the women look the same.  It's like there's this formula, skinny +  blonde + straight hair + size 2 + big fake boobs= California.  It drives me crazy.  British telly has such a wide variety of women, they don't look the same to me.  They're all different sizes, shapes and dispositions.

I'll get off my high horse now.  Unless it's Binky.  I asked the Hogsfather for a My Little Binky set for Hogswatch.   For those of you who follow me on Twitter (you poor sods you), you know I recently watched Terry Pratchett's Hogswatch this weekend and I promised to blog about it.  I lied.

Tune in next time!