The Complete TRON Collection (So Far)

Pictures are after the break. Most of these aren't wallpaper-sized yet. It'll happen eventually, I'm sure.

Administrative Note (And a Free Wallpaper)

Given that I've now added crazy fun wallpapers to the site, I've killed two turkeys with one boulder and made the ebooks page a "Downloads" page.

And here's the shiny new wallpaper.  It's the same as the other one, only orange instead of blue.

640x480 || 800x600 || 1024x768 || 1152x864 || 1280x960 || 1280x1024 || 1600x1200

CHON

Okay, maybe not CHON. CHON sounds kind of silly. But anyway, with the new TRON movie finally, finally, finally hitting theaters yesterday, there's been an upsurge in really cool lighting/TRON-like Photoshop tutorials. Last night, I was talking to mxpw and looking at some gorgeous fan-made posters, one thing led to another, and then this happened:

And then I thought, this would make a great wallpaper, soooooo....

mxpw vs. Frea - Chuck vs. the Wookie

Chuck vs. the Wookie

Season 1, Episode 4, air-date 15 October 2007

A rival agent shows up; she needs assistance stealing a gem from a drug lord. Chuck's agents are reluctant to help due to past dealings.

Carina Hansen Miller.  She's been present in two episodes total of this series, but you wouldn't know it looking at the archives over at fanfiction.net. mxpw and Frea are even among the guilty who have written entire stories about this DEA agent they like to call "Loki in a Skirt" (one more so than the other!).  So when the opportunity to review her debut episode came up, they might have jumped at the chance.

And look, there's even a new mxpw vs. Frea graphic to, er, commemorate it.  Yeah, that's our story and we're sticking to it.  (Frea's note: Many, many, many, many apologies to Yvonne Strahovski).

Some Stuff

First off, you've probably gotten the email or seen the Tweet or whatever by now, but there's a new chapter of What Fates Impose up.  Chuck like you've never seen him before!

Second off, we're going to be a day late with the next mxpw vs. Frea.  We'll be watching Chuck vs. the Wookie for this one, so if you want to follow along or prepare, I'd recommend turning to those DVDs you hopefully purchased and reveling in the goodness that is Yvonne Strahovski, Zachary Levi, and Mini Anden in the same scene (funny story: when I went to see The Tourist in the theater the other day, there was a movie trailer with Jason Statham.  I kept my eyes peeled for Yvonne, thinking it might be for The Killer Elite, and therefore was sad that I didn't see more than a split-second flash of anything that could be her, until the title popped up at the end and proved it was actually a trailer for The Mechanic.  And the split-second flash that I thought might have been Yvonne?  It was Mini Anden.  No joke).

Thirdly, remember those comic book covers I did?  Sarah - Wrath of the Giant Blonde Shemale?

Sneak Preview: Fates 45

So random fact: I don't know if it was the script writer or the editor (I don't think it was the editor) or the props department, but somebody on Chuck can't spell "Seville."  And now that that little note is out of the way, how about a preview of What Fates Impose, Chapter 45?  Yeah, yeah, I know All the Roads That Lead to You Are Winding did it first, but damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead anyway!

Man, I'm so excited for the rest of Fates 45.  I may post another snippet later on because I get to do something absolutely new with Chuck.  I've done it to Casey (not in Fates), and now it's Chuck's turn.  I can't wait until Sarah has her go at it.

Also, quick note: new ebook on the page.  Chuck vs. Fulcrum!  ne71 was awesome and emailed me the original file, which meant a really fast conversion.  Boo-yah!  After the break, a nice preview of What Fates Impose, Chapter 45: Red Day Dawning.

Fates

I've been a bit at war with myself lately and I need to come clean.  I've promised time and again on this blog that What Fates Impose is going to go all the way to the Intersect 2.0, but I've been thinking about it and talking it over with Maximus, and I've come to a decision.  What Fates Impose will end a lot sooner than that.  I have a lot of reasons for this, some of which are personal, some having to do with the plot.

The reasons I can give you:

I want to write other things.   Fates is a gargantuan task taking up several hours a week.  I recently took a week off of writing and the breather felt amazing.  I love writing Fates.  I love writing for you guys.  But I've been writing the same thing for 300k words, and it's beginning to take a toll.

The new ending place I've picked is actually a better ending that my original.  One of the key components to writing is to know when to end a book and when to start one, and my original ending has sat badly with me since the beginning.

I know people are going to be disappointed with the ending, knowing that there was potentially story after that, but there's not much I can do about that.  This isn't an apology for anything, even though I regret that I just can't tell the whole story.  All good things come to an end, and so will Fates.

But don't worry, we've still got quite the ride to get to the new ending spot.

:)

Frea

I Learned a New Trick

So one of the things I've been teaching myself is how to do things in Photoshop.  It's partially fascination and partially practicality, but sometimes, I have to wonder.  Anyways, a few days ago, Nathan Fillion tweeted a fan-made Castle comic book cover that looked really great and retro and I thought, "Ooh, that's neat!"  And I instantly wanted to know how to do that myself, so I spent some time studying the picture.

And then it occurred to me.  You know what else would make a great comic book cover?

Frequently Asked Questions

Good news, everybody!

So the other day, somebody asked for what seemed to be the millionth time, what SWP means. Perfectly understandable, mind you, as what is more important than SWP? I can't really think of anything. But it got Frea and myself to thinking (always a dangerous thing). As enjoyable as it is to proselytize to our readers about the glories of SWP, it is terribly inefficient. I mean, wouldn't it be better to just have an explanation everybody can look at whenever they want for what SWP stands for, than to have to explain it every time somebody asks?

The answer is yes, yes it would be better.

Happy Birthday, Chris!

So a few months ago, this story popped up on fanfiction.net that made me go, "Waaaaaaait a minute."  I mean, it was so well-written and kind of brilliant, but...at the time, it was like a prequel to What Fates Impose, which, let me tell you, really got my dander up.   So I went out and bought a shotgun and some rock salt and I did me some huntin'.  I searched the entire Midwest up and down for this upstart writer who had the audacity to steal my idea and make it even better, I tell you.  And then I took the poor son of a gun out back behind the shed and put him out of his misery, which is why that story hasn't been updated in months.

Actually, that's not what happened at all.  I fell so much in love with the story Chuck vs. the Simple Twist of Fate that when I saw a request by the author for a beta reader, I jumped all over the opportunity.  And to this day, I am so, so grateful that I did because otherwise, I would never have gotten to meet the wonderful I Am Not Amused aka Musey aka Chris.  And that, my friends, would be a very sad existence indeed.  In the months that I have known him, I have come to esteem Chris as one of the coolest people I know.  He's an awesome writer, his taste in music and his love for music are both astounding and kind of mind-blowing, and he's just a really great dude.

So thank you, Chris, for being my friend and enriching my life and my music collection.  Happy Birthday to the real life Bryce Larkin (but way cooler).

Now, everybody, as a birthday present to Chris, go read Storms in Encino and review it!

:)

Frea

mxpw vs. Frea - Chuck vs. the Intersect / Pilot

Chuck vs. the Intersect / Pilot

Season 1, Episode 1, air-date September 24, 2007

Chuck is a computer geek who gets a computer full of information zapped into his brain...information that contains secrets that the federal government desperately needs to keep in Chuck's head...and keep Chuck, himself, intact.  Chuck meets a woman who agrees to go on a date with him, but she's one of the government agents who's interested more in his head than his body.

So in the first "Retro Version" of mxpw vs. Frea, the two commentators attempt to battle the boredom of hiatus with an episode that regularly shows up on favorite lists of Chuck bloggers everywhere.  Last week, there was no optimist.  This week, there is no pessimist.  Amazing how that balances out.

Unfortunately, the monkey minions chained to the keyboard were unable to capture the first part of the conversation between our esteemed episode critics (or it was about Fates/Fortune and contained spoilers), so we now take you to your regularly scheduled mxpw vs. Frea, already in session:

mxpw vs. Frea: Back to the Future

Good news, everybody!

Like the line up above says, I have good news! Frea, in all her infinite wisdom, floated to me a most excellent idea: What would the world be like if mxpw and Frea took a crack at reviewing the episodes of a simpler, happier time? I can tell you, I don't know for sure, but I am excited to find out what this Brave New World has in store for us.

So without further delay or pomp or circumstance or diversion, I present you Castle Inanity's plan to help you deal with a severe lack of SWP in your life.

Yellow Paper Snippet

Today saw a massive overhaul of The Masterfully Decorated Evil Lair of One Frea O'Scanlin, which usually turns up interesting artifacts (case in point: favorite hat!  second case in point: shrunken head of enemy from second grade) and today was no exception.  For indeed, I found a piece of yellow legal paper that seems to contain the original draft of part of Chapter 14: At the End of the Day.

Because I'm nice (and have nothing else to post today), I'll share it here (warning, some swearing!):

A Treat!

So with massive help from nneghandi, Course Jester, and the Ardent Aardvark, yesterday I learned how to do something very important:

That's right, I learned how to put a Table of Contents into an epub ebook.

Which means if you head over to that ebooks page now, you can get new versions of What Fates Impose I-III, What Fates Impose IV (including up to chapter 44), To Resist Both Wind and Tide, and the complete Adorable Psycho, now including the newest chapter of 9 Months and The 405 Gets Plowed, of course.

Also, there's a new ebook up on the page.  I combined all six of the Fatesverse one-shots and put them up there in PDF, ePub, and Kindle formats for everybody.  As far as the other stories without TOCs, I'll get those formatted as time allows, and add new stories to the queue.

Happy Sunday, everybody!

Frea

PS - I am not neglecting Fates to do this, even though the progress bar hasn't moved.  I've taken a week off of writing.

A Special Holiday Message

Happy Channukah, everybody!

Love,

The CIA

Quick Note

Just wanted to let everybody know I added a new ebook to the page up there at the top -- ninjaVanish's Chuck and Sarah vs. the Bunker.  I'll of course add Themselves when he finishes it.  Any requests for finished stories?

:)

Frea

mxpw vs. Frea - Chuck vs. the Leftovers

Chuck vs. the Leftovers

Season 4, Episode 10, original air-date November 29, 2010

Things are turned upside-down the day after Thanksgiving when Chuck's mother drops by...along with Alexei Volkoff. Morgan must deal with Jeff and Lester during the Black Friday sale at the Buy More.

There are puppies and rainbows after the break, and our review. A coincidence?

Instant Reaction: Chuck vs the Leftovers

Tweet: #SarahConnorBitches #Chuck410

Addendum: Pretty sure any episode that lacks Linda Hamilton is an episode wasted.


Tweet: #JamesBondBitches #Chuck410

Addendum: Pretty sure any episode that lacks Timothy Dalton is an episode wasted. Wait. Let me rethink that, becuase last week didn't have either of them. Let's rephrase: Any episode that lacks Linda Hamilton and/or Timothy Dalton is an episode wasted, provided that said episode doesn't include oodles of SWP. Can we agree with that?


Want more idolizing of Linda Hamilton and Timothy Dalton? Just hit the jump.

Another Holidaze Message from Castle Inanity

Love,

The CIA

A Special Thanksgiving Day Message*

Love,

The CIA

*This is assuming you're, you know, in the States. If not, have a wonderful Thursday and we'll be back on Saturday with your regularly scheduled Inanity.