Shannon B. Chenoweth

So, here it is Sunday, just hours away from my vacation beginning, and I’m getting a cold? I woke up this morning and my throat felt scratchy and things just seemed to continue down that path today. As I sit here at 9pm, all I can hope is that the airborne I picked up today as well as the echinacea and vitamin C I’ve been downing will help me beat this thing. Not only do I want to be sick during my vacation, but I definitely don’t want to feel like crap flying in a plane to New York on Tuesday morning.

Stopped by Mini Megacon this afternoon for a couple of hours to see some friends who were in Artist Alley. Jeez was the con hall freezing! By the time I headed out, I was anxious for a parka or some sort of jacket. Brrrr! It was great seeing everyone, wish I could have hung out longer, but packing for my trip had to be attended to since I work tomorrow. Brought my camera and planned on shooting some pictures, but didn’t end up shooting one shot! Ha.

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I recently came across some old short stories and such that I have written throughout the last few years. This is a piece of a story that I wrote during season 9 of The X-Files. I was a huge fan of the show, and of course dreamed of being able to write for it. I feel I should note that I obviously have no legal right to The X-Files and it’s characters. This is merely a fan-fiction of sorts. And, while like I said, I don’t own the characters, if for some reason you want to re-post this somewhere, please ask first. Thoughts are welcome, as always. Thanks.

Scully enters her apartment after a long day at work. She is exhausted. “Mmm. What’s that wonderful smell?” She inquires aloud, as Fox Mulder appears in the entry way wearing an apron around his waist.
“Dinner. So, how was your day?” Mulder asks the redhead as helps her out of her beige trench coat.
“This case we’re working on has me downright exhausted. Thank goodness Agent Doggett was willing to stay behind, because I sure didn’t have the energy to look at those reports again today,” Scully muses. “How is William?”
“Sleeping. Just you, me and Fettuccine Alfredo tonight,” Mulder replies with a smile.
“Mulder, you never cook. What’s up?”
“Can’t a guy merely cook for his favorite G-woman without someone thinking that something is wrong? Now, you go change into something comfortable and I’ll take care of everything else.”
After a brief beat, Scully turns and makes way toward the bedroom. Mulder notices the question and apprehension in her eyes, but ignores it. He has already gone over it in his head again and again all week long. Tonight was the night he was going to tell her. It had to be.

The two enjoyed a candlelit dinner together complete with a bottle of champagne. It was all picture perfect and relaxing. With dinner over, Mulder took a deep breath, “there are some things I need to tell you Scully; some things I need to explain.”
“Mulder,” Scully began, “there isn’t anything you need to explain to me.”
“Please Scully, please just hear me out. I need to do this,” Mulder counters back at his former partner.
“After Quantico, I may have been everything my superiors envisioned in a future Bureau Director, less for my obsession for the paranormal. Things aren’t always what they seem however. Good profiling and investigative skills can only take you so far. To keep me on the fast track, I was introduced to a women and fellow F.B.I. Agent. The reasons for her being there were no secret. She was to keep me on track no matter what it took. It wasn’t long before I fell head over heels for her. She was everything I thought I needed or wanted in a woman. She filled in the gaps in my life. She even seemed to understand everything I was going through. My head told me to run, run as far away as I could from her. But, it was too late, she already had my heart wrapped around her finger. Six months later, we were walking down the aisle.”
A look of surprised shock overcomes Scully. She had never thought of the possibility that Mulder may have been previously married. Noticing the look, Mulder takes another deep breath and continues.
“If the Bureau thought I had lost interest in the paranormal and the search for my sister, they couldn’t have been more wrong. I played the good Agent for awhile, allowing them to believe that their plan had worked. This was until I had a run in with the Lone Gunmen. Although, they weren’t the Lone Gunmen back then, not yet. A simple case of apprehending a suspect turned into much more for everyone involved. And, when the day was done, I had far more questions than I had ever had before. Questions which their answers might only be found in the discovery of The X-Files. And, well, you know the rest of the story.” Mulder looks over at Scully, awaiting her response.
“I’ll admit, I never thought for a minute that you had been married.” Scully finally tells him, “but, that doesn’t change anything between us Mulder. The past is the past.”
Mulder shifts uncomfortably in his chair, “for some of us, the past really isn’t in the past,” he explains to her.
“I don’t understand, Mulder,” Scully echos back.
Mulder stands up and reaches into a nearby desk drawer, pulling out a large yellow manila envelope. He hands it to her.
“That came in the mail earlier this week,” he tells her.
Scully opens the envelope, revealing it’s contents. Inside is a handwritten letter, on plain white typing paper. As Scully reads it, Mulder watches her reaction with a knot in his stomach.
The letter is from Diana Fowley, stating how sorry she is that she couldn’t go through with signing the papers after all. That, it was too difficult for her to do.
After a brief moment, Scully looks over at Mulder, the pieces of the puzzle slowly coming together.
“Monday would have been our eleventh wedding anniversary,” Mulder manages to mumble.

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INFERNO (One-shot, DC Comics)
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artist: Greg Scott

To begin with, I feel I should note that until this summer, I have previously been a dedicated Marvel fan and reader. Easily, 99% of my pull list at the comic shop was for Marvel titles. This isn’t to say that I had anything against DC Comics. On the contrary, I just never knew where or when I could “jump on” to a particular titles seeing as how DC’s books seemed to always have some kind of a Crisis going on which connected everything together. For someone not overly familiar with the DC Universe, I felt a bit overwhelmed by their offerings.

This all has seemingly changed in 2009. DC Comics has, in my opinion, really become accessible for any and everyone. Yes, there is a huge storyline going on with Batman, but entering into their world has been fairly easy. I feel as connected to Batman or the Lantern Corps as I do with Marvel characters like Spider-man or The Avengers. To this I must say, “bravo DC creative team, bravo.”

INFERNO is a one-shot book written by J. Michael Straczynski with artwork by Greg Scott. I spotted this title on the shelf at my shop and immediately passed by it. That was, until the scribe of the book caught my eye, Straczynski. It was his work on Babylon 5 that lead me to read comics at all (with the help of a friend). My first taste of comics and JMS was the first arc of his creator-owned series, RISING STARS. Wow, was that an amazing, mind-blowing tale. Truly, a work of greatest in my mind. Definitely go out and pick up the first arc collected if you have yet to, highly recommended. Anyway, since Straczynski had done me nothing but good in the past with his work in comics (AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, MIDNIGHT NATION, the list goes on), I figured this INFERNO book was worth a second glance.

In the book, we meet an odd man who is the only survivor of a cruise liner explosion that killed more than two-hundred people. The man has given a name to the hospital staff, but no one knows for sure if the name belongs to him or if he was trying to tell them something. This lone survivor appears to be suffering from a bout of amnesia. He doesn’t remember anything beyond that there was an explosion. Meanwhile, the one name he spoke, Frank Verrano becomes a dead end for the police detective looking into the case. She cannot find a single piece of information, not even a birth certificate.

The mystery man is suddenly attacked in the hospital and a huge, fire-filled action sequence breaks out. Fire-filled due to amnesia man being able to turn into his own version of the Human Torch. Anyway, his overseeing doctor plays a big role in the scenes to come as well. Another boat becomes victim to an odd bombing and an APB is put out on the fire man now calling himself, INFERNO. His story is one part of something called The Red Circle.

Now, I looked into this Red Circle a bit to see if I could find out anything since this is the first I’ve heard of them. According to Wikipedia, DC Comics recently bought the licensing for the catalog of characters from the former Red Circle Comics line. Red Circle Comics first came to light in 1973, publishing a title called Chilling Adventures in Sorcery. The comic book line ascends from the well-known Archie Comics Publications, as the company used it to publish stories that were non-Archie characters, specifically superhero stories.

The bottom line is, definitely check out this book. Not only is the writing superb, but Greg Scott’s artwork is beautiful and really compliments Straczynski’s words. This is the first work I’ve seen from Scott and thus far, I’m impressed and look forward to seeing more of what he can do.

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(this was actually Friday’s prompt, but I didn’t get a chance to post what I wrote last night.)

PROMPT: Green. Write a brief bit of fiction involving money.
http://oneminutewriter.blogspot.com/

It was all about the money, it always was from the start. Yes, it’s true that I loved her beautiful soft flowing blonde locks and her oh so alluring charms, but she was just the temptation, the temptress. I have to right out admit that in all honesty, the greed of the pay off was all the more important. I was definitely a greedy bastard. Who wouldn’t have been? A quick million smackers was enough to make even a formerly honest salesman like me turn to the dark side. To a life of crime. To a life now behind bars. What in the hell was I thinking?

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“Paramount’s shocking, suspense-filled masterpiece of love…and murder.”

While I have been a film noir lover for years now, somehow, I had never sat down and watched Double Indemnity. Of course, after finally renting it, I saw how spectacular of a film I had been missing all these years.

Visually, Double Indemnity is amazing, it is absolutely the king of film noir classics. The use of the venetian blinds to continually cast their shadows upon each scene as well as the femme fatale using the protagonist insurance salesman to do her will is all signature noir style.

The story itself that was the basis for the picture is a 1927 crime committed by a married Queens women and her lover. The scandal was turned into fiction by author, James Cain. Later, Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder co-adapted the tale into the screenplay. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, but didn’t take home any statues.

Fred MacMurray, who portrays the insurance salesman, Walter Neff is first-rate in the role. He is likable, and makes you feel sorry for him even after he has committed murder and is deserving of whatever the fates throw at him. His narration throughout the film is fantastic, I enjoyed it just as much as his moments with the conniving wife and his boss, Keyes.

Barton Keyes, Neff’s insurance investigator supervisor was played by the excellent Edward Robinson. Robinson was well known for his spectacular performance as the title role of the ambitious criminal Rico in the movie, Little Caesar in 1931. He does an amazing job as the determined Keyes in Double Indemnity whose gut instincts seem to never fail to lead him to the truth.

Our femme fatale, Phyllis Dietrichson performed by Barbara Stanwyck puts on a stunning portrayal. She is alluring and convincing in the role as the motivated wife. It isn’t difficult to see why she is nominated for her third Academy Award for Best Actress in the picture, as she more than deserved the honor.

All in all, I would recommend the movie highly to anyone who is wanting to see some of the best Hollywood has had to offer through the years. Double Indemnity is easily one of the best films ever made, without hesitation, without a doubt one that should be a part of any movie buff’s collection.

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You know, I used to have high expectations for the Nikon name and brand. That was until now. About a week and a half ago, I sent my D5000 DSLR back to them for the service advisory repair since my camera was one that might be affected per their website. I packaged the box well and tight, so as my camera was well cushioned during it’s trip to Connecticut where Nikon is doing the repairs.

Jump to last Friday morning. I had checked earlier in the week on the tracking, and UPS reported that the package containing my D5000 had reached the repair facility on Monday, August 3rd. Okay, I figured by this time I should have had some sort of email or what have you from Nikon about the ETA of repair on my camera. So, I called them. After waiting on hold for almost ten minutes, a representative was less than helpful or insightful. He informed me that he couldn’t tell me anything about my specific camera and that I should be hearing something from Nikon by Monday. So, basically, I just sent them my $800 piece of equipment and they couldn’t give me any information on what was going on with it. This astonished me, I thought, ‘I expect better from Nikon than this.’ But, I decided to be patient and give them some more time despite part of me wanting to call back and request to speak with a supervisor.

Here’s where we arrive at the present. I got home from work this evening to discover a box addressed to me. Since I wasn’t expecting anything, it surprised me a bit. Opening it up, it became clear very quickly who the box was from, Nikon. Inside was my camera. The packing of the box itself was shoddy. The box containing my camera was barely secured. Thankfully, the camera body itself seems okay, no damage from what I can tell. I searched the box for paperwork. Nothing, nadda. What? You supposedly did some sort of repair on the equipment but no paperwork? How am I to believe that anything was done at all to it? And, they never, not once communicated with me through the process, a process mind you that had to take place because Nikon messed up on the D5000 line. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that sometimes things happen, and I didn’t get upset when I heard about the service advisory, but no communication? Come on, Nikon. I honestly expected better from you than this. I guess my expectations have been set too high. Now, you have disappointed a loyal Nikon customer, one who has only purchased Nikon cameras now for over ten years. After all this, I’m not so sure that my next camera will be a Nikon. Yeah, I’m starting to reconsider my loyalty to the brand. Canon may start to get my business in the future. Sorry Nikon, but you are just not showing the loyalty to your customers that some of us have shown to you. If that’s the new way you are conducting business, I will be taking my money elsewhere. I work too hard to hand it over to a company who appears to not care about their consumer.

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PROMPT: In 100 years, what one statement would you like others to remember you as having said?
http://oneminutewriter.blogspot.com/

This is a tough one, isn’t it? Well, I would hope it would be something inspirational, something motivational. While I may not do acts to necessarily purposefully motivate or inspire, it’s nice to know when you do just this for someone else.

So, probably, “Believe in yourself, and never give up.” Something along those lines would be a great statement/quote to remember me by I think.

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This is from Geek Girl Diva’s blog. Sounded like fun, so here’s mine.
http://geekgirldiva.entertainmentearth.com/2009/08/come-write-with-me.html

Everything you think you know about me is a lie. You thought I was out for your best interests, for the interests of all those in the files, but you couldn’t have been more wrong. From the beginning the only person I’ve looked out for was me. I’m a selfish son of a bitch who only took on the files for my own personal agenda.

Ironic isn’t it? All those men, the organizations inside that we have fought to take down, and I’m none the better. I have taken any and every opportunity to reveal the truth around the one thing I care about. Nothing else has mattered to me.

Ha. The truly crazy thing is, that through all of this, through my journey to find the absolute, undeniable truth for myself, I never anticipated you. Not only you being here, but falling for you. Nothing could have prepared me for this, nothing. It appears my quest for my own egotistical meanings and reasoning has brought forth the one thing I wasn’t prepared for, someone else I have grown to care about as much as the pilgrimage. I love you, Scully.

(yes, I have recently been watching old episodes of The X-Files…always will be one of the best TV shows of all time, hands down )

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The prompt for today was, Pickup. A la pickup lines or create a pickup line. I sort of took mine in a bit of another direction. Anyway, the point is to free write for one minute around the theme or what have you and then stop to see what you came up with in the short amount of time.
Great blog site, please check it out. I’m going to try to do one of these daily and post it here on my blog.
http://oneminutewriter.blogspot.com/

Here’s what I came up with…

What is a pickup line anyway? I mean, honestly. A silly line a guy or girl makes up in an attempt to start a conversation with that attractive person across the room that has caught their eye? Why not just be yourself? Sure, you might say the wrong thing, but you have to realize that these so-called pickup lines are not reflective to the person behind the words. Personally, I think they are not only overrated, but just plain silly. I would much prefer a guy come up to me and simply be himself. That, in my mind is the way to go. Ditch those crazy pickup lines, and be who you are.

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It was 2008, I was living in Hendersonville, NC (30 minutes from Asheville) and loving it. I had moved there in June and here it was September, the time for a little vacation back down to Florida to visit family and friends. Little did I know that this vacation would change my life forever.

My vacation came and went, I drove down to the Sunshine State with my pet birds in tow (definitely made it a not-so-lonely drive!), and back again to the mountains. While in Orlando, my dad and I went to EPCOT one day. Both of us taking pictures with his DSLRS. We both wandered through the different countries snapping away. What I didn’t know is that my father took some pictures of me taking photos without my knowledge. I only discovered this when I got back home to North Carolina and uploaded the photos from the CD he had given me. He included both the photos I had taken and his. I was stunned not only to see images of myself, but more so at how I appeared in the photos. I remember thinking, “Wow, do I really look that fat? Am I that large?” Seeing myself that overweight upset me greatly. I knew I was fat and unhealthy, but didn’t have any idea just how bad off I was. It was a reality check that while I wasn’t ready for, I seriously needed. Staring at myself on the screen of my computer, I knew that I had to change, I had to get healthy and lose the weight for good. No more excuses, it had to be done.

Left photo is one that prompted the lifestyle change. Right is from October 2008.

So, it began. I dusted off Jillian Michaels’ “Winning By Losing” book and started to really take every word she wrote to heart. I began to download podcast episodes of not only Jillian’s radio show, but other weight-loss podcasts that would aid in keeping me motivated and help me learn about health and fitness. Also, I kept a food journal, writing down any and everything I put into my mouth. My grocery shopping trips brought more apples and such into my cart while the chips and cookies got left by the wayside. After work each night, I went to my apartment complex’s fitness center to workout. No, it wasn’t easy at first, heck, it wasn’t easy even at times throughout, but I knew I was doing the right thing. I knew in the end, I would be glad I was making these better choices and putting in the hard work to drop the weight.

Slowly but surely, the pounds began to come off! Some weeks were great, losing 3-4 pounds, others not so much, only dropping one pound. Nonetheless, I told myself, I was succeeding, I was getting smaller and healthier. And, I was doing it the right way, no pills or “lose weight quick” diets, just good old fashioned calorie counting and sweating it out.

Further inspirations for me were The Biggest Loser contestants, Jillian Michaels, and Bob Harper. Watching fellow “losers” each week on TV working hard was a big motivation and inspiration for me during my journey. In addition to Biggest Loser, was the online support I have had on a forum I began a regular poster on, we all need support and these people were definitely that for me. While I know that it is me who has done all the hard work to drop the weight and get healthy, I can honestly say that without the support I have gotten from those friends, I may not have gotten as far as I have.

As of today, August 2009, I have now lost 69lbs and counting. I have never felt better in my life. Not only am I now at a healthy weight, but I love being active. Can’t say that I necessarily love working out all the time, but I it is now a part of who I am. Working out and watching what I eat is a way of life for me. I will never go back to that overweight girl who was unhappy with how she looked and felt. The “new” me is here to stay.

October 2008 to August 2009 progress photo.

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