Saturday, October 2, 2010

News, Error 503, and Handwriting

Remember the 90’s PC game MYST? It’s soon to be a major motion picture. They will be tapping into the MYST novels for the storyline.

“Error 503” – anyone else getting this error? It annoyed me all Friday.

The prequel to Alien has hit a snag. Ridley Scott wants a $250 million budget and a hard R film. Fox wants PG-13 and a far cheaper film. Be interesting to see who wins. (But really - a PG-13 Alien movie?)

And according to an article in The Register, the iPad spends 20% of usage time in bed – “Not tonight honey, I’m stroking my tablet.”
Um, no. I promise, I’ve NEVER uttered those words!

Okay, on to the tag and my bad handwriting…

Nicole at One Significant Moment at a Time finally zapped me with the Handwriting Tag. It’s been floating around for a while, so I knew someone would get me before long.

Rules:
Write down (by hand!) on a piece of paper the following:
1. Name, Blog Name
2. Right handed, left handed, or both?
3. Favorite letters to write
4. Least favorite letters to write
5. Write out "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"
6. Write in CAPS: BABOON, SPLENDOR, ONOMATOPOEIA, FLIP-FLOPS, HUZZAH!
7. Favorite song lyrics
8. Tag 7 people
9. Whatever else strikes your fancy



Song lyrics are by In Flames and nothing else struck my fancy...

The people I'm tagging are:
Simon at Constant Revisions
Arlee at Tossing it Out
Stephen at Breakthrough Blogs
(Yeah, I want to see the crappy handwriting of other men, but I’ll only torture three!)

This is my one weekend post for NaBloWriMo.

Tune in Monday – after numerous requests, I’m posting an excerpt from CassaStar!

55 comments:

Copyboy said...

psyched for myst. spent most of my 90s hours playing it.

Copyboy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I'm embarrassed to admit how many hours I spent playing Myst in the 90's. That game still haunts me.

Golden Eagle said...

The Error 503 has been bugging me too; it also says "Service Unavailable" a lot of the time. Hopefully Blogger will get its bugs worked out.

Your handwriting is way easier to read than mine is!

I'm looking forward to the CassaStar excerpt! :)

Cruella Collett said...

503's are terribly annoying. Your handwriting is not, though. It is quite neat, actually. And I'm looking forward to the excerpt :)

TS Hendrik said...

Studios always want a pg-13. They make more money than R. I've heard about the Myst movie. I think it's a pretty good idea. There's a big story there. It'll be interested to see how it's handled.

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Hi I am fed up with "Error 503"

How glad I escaped the handwriting tag. thank you for choosing men.

Thanks for your visit and lovely comment. Much appreciated,

Enjoy your week-end;
Yvonne.

Liz P said...

Thanks Alex! I hadn't heard about the Myst movie. Sunk a lot of hours into that game back in the Windows 3.1 days. Also enjoyed the sequel, Riven.

The books were also really good if you ever get your hands on them... Great story, great potential for a movie if they do it right.

Charles Gramlich said...

Never played Myst. Always wanted to. No one could read my handwriting.

Arlee Bird said...

I was reading this and as I got to your tag I was thinking, "I hope no one ever tags me for this." Thanks, Alex. So maybe today is not my last Saturday post. I'll respond to this next Saturday.

I'm not even sure I still know how to write by hand.

Lee
Tossing It Out

Bossy Betty said...

I knew someone who was sucked into the MYST. It was not pretty.

Your handwriting, however, is very cool. I have sent it to a lab for analysis.

Karen Lange said...

MYST, huh? My kids and husband used to play that. Have a great weekend!

Private said...

You have very nice handwriting for a man:) Also looking forward to the excerpt!

Anonymous said...

I've been getting that Error 503 message often. I've learned to write lengthy comments on a Word doc first so I don't lose it.

Stephen Tremp

vic caswell said...

Error 503 has been pissing me off so much! grrr!!!

and dude! you have wonderful handwriting! totally legible!

Karen M. Peterson said...

I've been tagged twice in the handwriting meme and I have yet to do it. Maybe I should.

Your handwriting is pretty good. In fact, it kind of looks like a font, but I can't remember which one.

Unknown said...

Really neat handwriting.

And yes, I too got the 503 error and it drove me nuts.

CD

Gail said...

I could read your writing so it's not too bad.

DEZMOND said...

your handwriting is at the same time innocent and sharp, it shows a person who nurtures a child within (rounded letters), but who also wants a certain attention of the world around him (the sharp upper endings of F,). You are also shy and reserved and unimposing (all letters are short and flattened). Off course, I'm no graphology expert :)

Marian Allen said...

A MYST movie?!?! OMG!!!! My oldest grandson and I played through 3, then 2, then 1. Not sure now why we did them in reverse order; I think that was the order in which we got hold of them. I went online and found cheats for the boring bits, but we played most of it honestly. GREAT games! I love the puzzle-solving ones. He moved "on" to the more violent ones, I'm sorry to say.

Thanks for the good news!

Marian Allen

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Never played Myst. Think I was still into Sonic the Hedgehog at that time.
And your handwriting is better than mine!

RaShelle Workman said...

Alex - At least your handwriting is readable.

And, come on, if you're going to make an Alien film, do it right. Give the man his money and his R rating, although I don't know about a hard R. Like, what was that one film that was so bloody, it took away from the film?

Mary@GigglesandGuns said...

You write so tiny! Bet you don't do you stories by hand.
So glad you tagged the guys -- it'll be fun to see.

Mary@GigglesandGuns said...

You write so tiny! Bet you don't do you stories by hand.
So glad you tagged the guys -- it'll be fun to see.

Misha Gerrick said...

Bah that's nothing. Maybe one day I could be convinced (read: bribed) to take a picture of my hand writing.

Let me put this way. My mom took one look at it and suggested I become a doctor...

;-P

dolorah said...

Your handwriting is pretty neat.

Love the "stroking my tablet" comment. :)

Can't wait for a CassaStar excerpt.

Have a nice weekend Alex.

.........dhole

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

TS, I know they just want to attract teens, but really - who made the series so popular in the first place?

Liz, I've not read any of the Myst books.

Lee, I'm sure you'll figure it out!

Betty, let me know the results.

Stephen, I started copying all comments before hitting the button so I didn't have to rewrite them again.

Dezz, you're good, although not too sure about wanting attention...

RaShelle, I totally agree!

Mary, it's smaller than real life. And yes, I do write by hand.

Thanks everyone - thought my handwriting was really lame!

Old Kitty said...

Error 503s seem to be part and parcel of blogger these days! My main peeve is when I write a long comment, do the word verification thing, press submission, wait...... et voila. Error 503. LOL!!

ipads in bed. Discuss.
:-)

Great to see your handwriting!!! Does it get analysed or something? I had my crappy writing analysed once and it was quite freakingly accurate so now I just type! LOL!

Yay!! I look forward to the excerpt of YOUR BOOK!!!! Lovely!!! Take care
x

Roland D. Yeomans said...

Actually Error 503 has taken my comment away from you twice already!

Sigh. Blogger hates me. I'm in enough pain without that.

I have been absent from my friends' blogs because I've been overloaded with work from an incompetent regional suprvisor's mistake,

been injured on the job,

further injured by the company doctor I was forced by law to see instead of my doctor of choice --

and now, I am in pain even as I write this, considering what path to take.

Thanks for all the visits, Alex, and the much appreciated comments, Roland

N. R. Williams said...

Made me laugh Alex. The only thing I could think of while reading the hand written snag you received was someone saying to the judge. This person cannot be trusted, his handwriting clearly shows that he tells stories.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, fantasy author

DEZMOND said...

"Dezz, you're good, although not too sure about wanting attention..."

well you are publishing a book, having a popular blog, will become known in literary circles - that's all attention as well, the positive one off course, the wish to be fulfilled and successful in public.

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

I'm looking forward to Myst. There has been talk of another game installment (I played them all -- Myst, Riven, Uru) but it never happened and talk of a movie for ages as well...so it's great it's finally happening.

I haven't seen that error yet...please don't jinx me :P

And lol at an aliens PG-13

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Kitty, I started copying every comment before hitting the button, just so I wouldn't have to type it again. And for analysis, read Dezz's comment above.

Roland, sorry! On all accounts.

Nancy, proof you have a vivid imagination!

Dezz, and I cringe at all of that...

Lynda, I hope you don't!

Holly Jahangiri said...

I'll be interested in seeing Myst, but I'd rather play an updated version of the game, really.

Needs to be 3D Imax, now, doesn't it?

Jemi Fraser said...

I don't think I actually got online on Friday... or did I? It's been a werid couple of days so I'm really not sure! :)

Can't wait for the teaser!

Patricia Stoltey said...

I wasn't on the Internet much the last week so I missed Error 503 (which sounds as though it might be related to Area 51). Lucky me.

Julie Musil said...

You have nice guy writing! Not that guy writing can't be nice. It's just that you can usually tell a guy's writing, right? Am I making this worse?

Anonymous said...

Okay, I thouht I could fly below the radar, write a comment, and leave unnoticed. But you caught me. I've been Tagged! I'll pick this up next week.

Stephen Tremp

Jackee said...

Man, you have nice handwriting for a guy! And really? e-books mostly in bed? I guess now I have a new excuse beyond a headache! (Ha, ha.)

It's great to meet you, Alex. I have a feeling our senses of humor are very similar! :o)

Cheers,
Jackee

Cheeseboy said...

I am a handwriting expert and my thoughts are that your handwriting pretty much says you kick ass.

Ted Cross said...

I can't get Myst to work on Windows 7 (I put it on to get my kids to try it), so maybe they will update it since the movie is coming out.

I hope Scott wins and gets to make the alien movie at his budget and a hard R.

Powdered Toast Man said...

I think you're a little bias towards the letter A, J and C

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Holly, maybe they will update it.

Patricia, both are a conspiracy!

Julie, no, you're not! Thank you.

Cheeseboy, I accept that assessment!

Ted, I just can't see a PG-13 Alien movie...

PTM - I just know those letters so well...

Hold my hand: a social worker's blog said...

wow... your handwriting is neat... compared to mine. Did it take your time writing down, and that's why it looks so clear? hehehe

Doris

Serena said...

your handwritings veryyy neat! I work for a bookies, so i get to stare at mens writing and betting slips all day long belive me some of them are getting the bill for my next pair of glasses. :) looking forward to the excerpt!
Aliens as a PG??? wow that would be lame

Ellie Garratt said...

I've not been getting error 503, but every time I edit a page, it signs me out of blogger. Really annoying.

Alien and PG 13 have no right existing in the same sentence!

Your handwriting is so neat compared to mine. LOL.

WritingNut said...

Your handwriting is quite neat! Tiny, but neat :)

I find I almost never write the same way twice. I can write a whole page and it will look like different people wrote it... is that weird?

Chuck said...

Can't wait for the Excerpt Monday!!!

Sangu Mandanna said...

Oooh, your handwriting is awesome! I love neat writing, it's so pleasing to my aesthetic-obsessed eye :-)

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Doris, I did try to make it legible, but it's not too far off from normal.

Ellie, that's worse!

Writing Nut, not weird, but it might really confuse a judge one day.

Natasha said...

I have been offline all weekend- sounds like a good thing now that you mention the trouble you have been having.
Neat handwriting that.

Sarah Ahiers said...

your handwriting is amazingly pristine compared to mine.

The Man-Cave said...

Loved Myst but never finished it though. I think a movie idea is a good one, but I just hope it delivers.

Hannah said...

Wow, I'm impressed. You're handwriting is not crappy. :D

Jamie Gibbs said...

I'm surprised with the Myst news. I enjoyed the PC game but can it really keep a viewer's interest for the full 2 hours (or more, Myst always seemed worthy of an epic length).
A PG-13 Alien movie wouldn't do justice to it's predecessors. What it would mean is a ton of action figures and LEGO sets, which is a bad compromise :(