Sometimes I forget that this is my blog and I can do more than write about other things like comics and movies. Even though, when writing about my own life, comics and movies come in to play.

First off, the wife and I adopted a dog. His name is Scooter, he’s a Corgi/Terrier mix and five years old. We’ve had him for about a month and he’s great. Or at least, I think so. He doesn’t like when strangers charge at him, even if they want to share affection, but you know what? I don’t like when strangers do that to me, so I understand the pup. I’ve got him leash trained, thanks to the Dog Whisperer and he’s the reason I walk two hours a day. On an unrelated note, my foot feels broken.

We also bought a second guinea pig. Her name is Mango and she’s just a tiny ball of fluff compared to our first pig, Penelope. At first, it didn’t sound like the two were getting along, with Penelope hogging the pigloo and evil-cavy purring whenever Mango came near. But now, they’re fine and Mango seems to be coming out of her shell. I think I’ve learned a lot from these guinea pigs and its that owning guinea pigs is a lot of give and not a lot of take. Go figure.

We’re making our way through the best picture nominations three months too late. So far, I haven’t seen anything to beat 12 Years a Slave and I can’t figure out how American Hustle made the billing but not All is Lost. Good job, Oscars. actually, maybe I shouldn’t say that even in sarcasm because you might think I’m being serious. Because you’re dumb. Like, ‘don’t know the order of the planets’ dumb.

Speaking of awards, I signed up to vote for this year’s Hugo Awards. I’ll talk more about this in a separate post, but the short point is that I get the packet with all the nominated works (ALL THE WHEEL OF TIME) and get to play an active part in Science Fiction’s future. I’m excited.

Now, transitioning to books, I finished writing mine. This is also something that needs its own post. After MY ENTIRE LIFE of wanting to write a full book, I finished my first novel. The last story I ever wrote to completion was fifty-two notebook pages back in eighth grade. Today, the last thing I wrote is a seventy-plus thousand word novel. It may have taken me way too long, but I’ve done it and it feels pretty good.

Speaking of…well, I just want to talk about my new laptop. My old one, the machine I was given my first year of Houghton College, finally said, “No more”. Luckily, like a wild animal, I had feelings of it’s coming death and backed it all up. From there, I went out and got myself a new laptop. It’s an HP, touch screen and more powerful than the custom job I build in ’05. What I couldn’t wrap my head around was why the lesser machines were more expensive at the store. It turns out people will pay more for a thinner computer with less power and space than they will for a slightly bigger one. I got the bigger one and save big bucks on a laptop that can actually do things well.

I think that’s it, for now. I need to write up a summer movie preview and talk about the X-Men soon. I’ll try to do that tomorrow.