Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

So far the ads on Zentastic (just this afternoon) are doing alright:

Can't go wrong with that number. I guess if this pace keeps up it'll make about $200 a month or something, which is pretty cool — if you multiply that out over a year it's enough to pay for a vacation! I just hope that their human who reviewed my blog took a thorough look and they don't play some lame “but you're in violation of our terms of service” scam — if they cancel me, would they refund everyone who paid them for the ads? I wonder…

Anyway, I didn't really do too much today… Nefarious and I played until about one in the afternoon, then I did a bit of work and Saira, Michael, Nefarious, and I went out to the local sports bar for some poutine (and a little chocolate ice cream for one of us).

Waffles are so much better with a good sauce. In a pan, heat up a little butter or margarine. Add a bunch of berries (I used blueberries and blackberries in this case), a little water, and sugar to flavor. Reduce all that to a sauce… so yummy!

Yes, it's true, we built a temple. But before you start worrying about all the religious themed paintings and sculptures, it's sort of like the Simpsons — multi-layered multi-age appeal. To her it's a part, but to me it's a temple for storing the sacrificial animals!

I'm super excited because Rachel is coming to visit tomorrow. She may be my “ex” (which sucks, but what are ya gonna do?) but she's still one of my closests friends and I've missed her a lot over the last month and a half. Oh, and I'm also excited because I'm getting tattooed tomorrow — we're finishing off my right arm's sleeve, and confirming the details of my left arm.

And I also have my new canvas primed and ready to go… But I don't think I'll have time to get it started until I get back from Edmonton. I think it's going to be a nice underwater scene with lots of creatures (“Beneath those stars is a universe of gliding monsters” -Melville) and maybe a submarine… and I always like painting things that involve many beautiful shades and blends of blue. I'm thinking about using glow in dark paint and making a double painting that looks different at night.

They say the sea is cold, but the sea contains
the hottest blood of all, and the wildest, the most urgent.

All the whales in the wider deeps, hot are they, as they urge
on and on, and dive beneath the icebergs.
The right whales, the sperm-whales, the hammer-heads, the killers
there they blow, there they blow, hot wild white breath out of the sea!

- James Tiberious Kirk, Star Trek IV
(Quoting DH Lawrence, Whales Weep Not)

Water is life.

Yay for super hot super cool Joanna Angel for having James Deen in a Dr. BME shirt in her new movie! Anyway, you may recognize a few IAM members on her site BURNING ANGEL as well, but below are a few caps from the new movie coming in April, Joanna's Angels 2:

Oh, and if you want to place an advance order for it, here's where you can do it (eventually, or maybe, or perhaps just use the main URL). Maybe if a few people place advance orders or something they'll send me some swag as a thank you, ha… Not that I can figure out where the advance order thing is.

My journalist friend (that's the only context I know her in) Quinn put together a very nice little implant article for WIRED which features me, Steve, and Emilio. It's not really anything new for BME readers, but it's a positive introduction to the subject for the mainstream:

"In Larratt's ideal world, 'Everyone looks interesting, everyone looks different.' So when body modification artist Steve Haworth invented a way to implant jewelry under human skin, Larratt jumped on the opportunity."

I told them that you could blame my interest in body modification on my father sitting me down in front of Star Trek so regularly as a kid (which is mentioned in the opening paragraph)… Growing up as a baby, I suppose I always assumed that it was normal to see aliens on the street… and since science and fate has not provided them for us, we need to create them. I remember Steve telling me long ago that he had some of the same influences:

"I'm not a Trekkie, but I enjoyed Star Trek. In another interview a woman had asked me what my inspirations were, and I had to think about it for a moment. Of course I said, 'Well, Fakir, and Jim Ward... and Star Trek'."

- Steve Haworth, 1997

I was also — rather bizarrely [edit: duh on me, the story adjacent is about me so it's a simple typo] — featured on one of my favorite blogs, BoingBoing, earlier today. Here is how the start of the entry (since corrected; screencap c/o Mike, and currently still online at this mirror and elsewhere):

"Cory Doctorow: The always-hilarious Shannon Larratt, late of the screamingly awesome comedy site Brunching Shuttlecocks, has put together a rendition of the Tolkienesque massively multiplayer online game that presents it as a Zork-style text adventure."

Now, it is true that I'm always hilarious, and I have been involved in some screamingly awesome sites, and I've even written Zork-style adventure games, but I've not written for Brunching Shuttlecocks, nor did I have any involvement in this little game… I guess Cory just had me on his mind when he wrote that or something? I love you too, buddy, and to prove it, I won't publish potentially embarrassing sex stories about your time in Toronto. Seriously though, I know people rag on Cory a lot for the direction he pushes BoingBoing, but I really think he deserves a lot of credit for the tenacity with which he pushes copyright reform and other civil rights issues that people too-often ignore.

Well, I've got to head out later today but I wanted to share this picture of the always-artistic Cory* and I doing a little painting earlier today.

* This entry may or may not be corrected to reflect the fact that this is in fact my daughter Nefarious.

Oh, and a BME update was posted last night if you didn't notice.