So I know I haven't been a very good blogger in the past year with my cruise, crafting, Halloween, now the holidays. Figured with the new year, I should start making more of an effort.

Right now my apartment looks like its in a huge disarray because Gabe and I are moving. We found a 2-bedroom apartment in the same complex that's on the bottom floor, has a dishwasher and is on the end of the building, so more windows, which will make Gabe happy. And they gave us a great deal so its only going to be a little under $50 more then if we stayed here. Its going to definitely give us more space so our bedroom won't look like a wreck with my crafting and our bookshelves and boxes of junk.

Silly side note: His parents gave us a money tree for X-mas. Yes an actual branch that was stuck into a bucket of cement with dollar bills hot-glued to it. Its the silliest and most awesome thing I have ever received. Gabe decided to decorate it with some ornaments and lights since we didn't bother getting a tree this year. It was really cute.

After doing 14 swaps in about 10 months, I've cut back a lot. I even got a new sewing machine and haven't touched it yet. At this point its too late anyway. Planning on taking clothes that I have that I no longer wear and making them into bags and things of that nature then possibly selling things. Working out the kinks for that one.

Have to say spending New Years with Christina and Nathaniel last night was a blast. We just ate some junky food and I fell asleep while they took turns shooting down some zombies. I honestly just woke up an hour ago.

"Terror marketing, or toxic marketing, is one area of negative psychological triggering that works when the target demographic has developed resistance to mass-marketing techniques. In some sense, all black metal relies on toxic marketing. Most horror films use toxic marketing, and a great example comes from the 1990 film Crazy People, in which an advertising executive places an ad for a film called The Freak with a tagline that states "This film won't just scare you, this film will fuck you up for life."

http://www.publicindividual.com/memetics/page59.html

A New Year For Us All - From the www.MythosMedia.net team.Amidst all of the turmoil that has occurred both in the US and abroad in 2008, many of the media giants are stomping around blindly. There is ...

A New Year For Us All - From the www.MythosMedia.net team.

Amidst all of the turmoil that has occurred both in the US and abroad in 2008, many of the media giants are stomping around blindly. There is no better time for truly independent groups of artists, musicians and myth makers to band together to collaborate, share and grow their myths. This is why Mythos Media formed in 2006-2007, and it remains our singular goal. The time is ripe now, but we need to meet each other halfway.

The purpose of this message is to alert you to what we have been doing over this past year, and what we look to create in 2009. The days of purely passive media are through. Sure, everyone likes to unwind and watch a movie from time to time, but always existing in that state of consumption leaves people shut-down, and isolated. This is why social media is exploding, even if major corporations are trying to turn the Internet into an ad-laden, vapid wasteland.

We all need stories that we can participate in, and a framework for us to collaborate and create work together. This is our goal moving forward- not only building our own myths but creating a sandbox for you to build your own as well. We believe static media like books and DVDs are merely entrance points into interactivity, collaboration, and the creation of new myths in the future, using technologies that are still being refined even as we speak. We hope you join us.

--James Curcio, Christmas Eve, 2008.

See the full, unabridged State of the Union, with tons of free books, music and more, go here: http://www.mythosmedia.net/content/2008/mm-12-08.html

New Years / Christmas presents coming soon from www.MythosMedia.net: free releases of almost everything we've put out. How's that? Sign up. (Newsletter, bottom of page.)

Dark Scribe Magazine has announced the nominees for the 2nd Annual Black Quill Awards, and VEINS, by Lawrence C. Connolly, has been nominated for Best Small Press Chill! Every vote helps, so please fo...

I receive several emails a month asking me how people should go about getting published, so I wrote this blog in order to give as much advice as I can in one place. First off, the ways in which one...

There is a story of the Chinese sage Zhuangzi that goes: "Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't kno...

There is a story of the Chinese sage Zhuangzi that goes: "Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn't know if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi. Between Zhuangzi and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things."

Though on its face this may seem an almost childish idea to most, if you have ever experienced a lucid dream, or if you really pay any attention at all to your inner life, you may come to realize that there is truth to it. What is more, there is a real terror that can accompany realizing that the ground we stand on, at least figuratively speaking, is not solid. All experience is simply experience, whether it involves balancing your checkbook or talking to the monk levitating above a colossal, marching procession of cymbal-crashing frog men.

Many movies have dealt with this idea. (The Science of Sleep and Vanilla Sky are the first two that come to mind that do it any justice, but there are many more.) However, few have done it with such a brilliant flare for the surreal as Satoshi Kon's Paprika. Like his previous film, Perfect Blue (review here), the animation is top notch, and the script solid, though even the best animes tend to be a little stilted in translation. He also utilizes many of the same techniques in both movies, including breaking that fourth wall nearly every scene. In the case of Paprika, these techniques are being applied for a different purpose, and I would say they are done somewhat more gracefully.

(Read full article on TLA Attacks The Movies.)

I got this from Dementia.If you feel like it, change the answers to your own, copy and paste, and post it as a new bulletin.TEN random things about me01. i love my mom, brother, 2 sisters & grandm...

Zipperhead to move ... http://www.livejournal.com/community/philadelphia/1640501.html from zipperhead's myspace profile: "Yes, it is true, we have lost our lease to 407 South Stre...

hello everyone just a reminder that this saturday JOHN'S DARK CORNER starts at Tribecca nightclub everything stays the same entry $5.00 5 djs 2 floors pooltables whats new though free cove...

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THATS RIGHT. As of sat. April 23rd 2005 Johns Dark Corner will no longer be held at the Barbary Saloon. We have been moved to tribecca because of new management at the Barbary. I was inf...