Cuppacafe

America will be having the first serious hurricane alert later on this week. It's a few days away from Puerto Rico, and whether it hits North America or not is still debatable.

To me, the computer models I put faith in suggest the thing recurves up the East Coast, possibly making landfall around the Carolinas in nine days. Other models say the Gulf of Mexico, and yet more models suggest the thing dies.

It will be called Hurricane Dean.

-- -- --

One thing Paris Hilton never wants to be again -- Flat Busted.

She went out and got a boob job.

Her IQ went up 25 points.

-- -- --

Mr. "Serious Atheist" Christopher Hitchens reviews Harry Potter as the series wraps up. [NYTimes Book Review]

On one hand the atheist Hitchens trashes the juvenile nature of the way Harry's world ignores Christianity, and in the other grudgingly accepts the popularity of the series.

-- -- --

I'm not watching anything of Big Brother except bits and pieces, but I am following the recaps.

There's a tattoo'd fellow in there who's a real asshole. His name is "Evil Dick" (could be spelled "Evel"). My personal nickname I give myself around Alison's kids is "EvilDad". Some Army Drill Sergeants called... they say Dick is too mean.

Evil Dick is being extra mean in the house, because his daughter is also up for being kicked out, and he would rather flame out in a blaze of assholyness than to try to make nice and stick around.

If this was the real world, someone would be in the hospital by now, or arrested, or both.

In Big Brother Germany, they have kissing lesbians.
In Big Brother America, they have trailer park rejects with an attitude.

-- -- --

The Brava Novella Contest opened up at the beginning of August. If you ever wanted your work put at the top of an important publishing executive's slush pile, this is how to do it.

All you need is 750 words of banter that you might find in a Brava novella.

Those words may not ever make it into the novella you might be contracted to write.

And speaking of contracts, nothing tangible is actually offered to the winners of the contest. Just a looksee by the editor that could buy your proposed novella. The last couple of these contests DID end up with entrants who are now published authors.

I have several thoughts on this, being as close as I am to this contest. (I am running the backend, so I have to see all the entries. I also ran the last Brava Novella Contest a few years back)

Essentially, entrants should stick to the banter between the hero and heroine to show the sexual tension, because that's usually where the sexy romances published by Brava really shine. The actual sex scene is rarely as good as the verbal give and take that precedes it. Since an entrant puts up their best work to this contest, putting up a sex scene indicates (to me, at any rate) a lack of confidence in what is more likely the more essential part of the romance -- the part that helps bond the reader to the characters.

-- -- --

Voltron and Thor are getting their own movies.

Voltron's script has been reviewed and highly praised by Latino Review.

Thor... uh, why?

-- -- --

The ABC show PUSHING DAISIES co-star's a man I've talked about here before, Chi McBride. Chi gets to play a comic role in this, and while the show relies on the Quirk Factor to sell it's humor (if you liked the first season of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, you'll like this), I don't see this show going anywhere. Chi needs a steady job. I like him no matter where he goes.

-- -- --

President Bush's popularity over time. [pic]

This is why you want a guy who made better than a "C" average in college sitting in the Oval Office.

UPDATE: ROVE RESIGNS

The Washington Post says: "After your child has already gone off to college seems an odd time to decide that you need to spend more time with your family."

-- -- --

The Space Shuttle Endeavour is in trouble. Something about giant space cooties eating through the skin of the spacecraft. They can't afford to send guys out to fix the thing.

-- -- --

Finally, images of armed rabbits [Triggerbunny]

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 7:45 am and is filed under Cuppabits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.