The Dark World Map is Here!

Finally, the long-promised map of Dark World is ready for prime time.

Here's a preview of the map:

Want a hi-res copy? There are a couple of options*:

1) Go to my Cafe Press store and purchase one of the printed maps. (It's available in 17" x 11" as well as 20" x 16".)

2) Purchase an 11" x 8.5" 150dpi electronic version (PDF) of the map via Lulu.com.

Over the coming days/weeks/months I'm planning on building the Dark World Gazetteer, one blog post at a time, so stay tuned...

*I hope I'm not offending anybody by going commercial. Everything else I have on this blog is free, and I plan to keep it that way. But, like many other decent folks, I find myself in dire straits, financially speaking. By buying one of these hi-res copies, you'll be helping me more than you know - and you'll be helping to ensure that the Rust Monster blog keeps rolling along.

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Best Holiday Wishes to You All

[Click the image to see more of this "Saturnalia miracle."]

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Bye-bye SGU - Thank You "SyFy"

So it appears that "SyFy" (said in my very best Mary Katherine Gallagher voice) has pulled the plug on Stargate Universe. All I really have to say to SyFy is:

"Thank you!"

Don't get me wrong: I liked SGU. A lot. Not that it was a great show; it was a little rehashed, and kept edging a little too far into BSG-level melodrama, which frightened me. (I know there are a lot of BSG fans out there, and for a couple seasons I was part of that group, but after that - well, not so much.) But SGU is - sorry, was the only space opera-ish scifi show on TV, and the characters were mostly acceptable, even if they and some of the plot elements they were involved in seemed to be recycled from elsewhere. It was watchable, which is a lot more than I can say for most programming on other networks - and pretty much everything else SyFy (MKG voice again) plays.

So why the "thank you?" Easy: that garbage processing plant of a network has finally given me a reason to completely disregard it. I've been struggling for a long time with SyFy's incessant regurgitation of CGI-/acting-/writing-challenged [Adjective] [Beast] movies and TV shows that want badly to be as smart and edgy as Fringe and The X-Files (but repeatedly fail to be either, apparently being penned by writers who aren't very smart or edgy). Throw in the Dick Clark of reality shows (How in the Hell is Ghost Hunters still cranking along?! I swear, that show's jumped the shark more times than I can count.), wrastlin', and now Pawn Stars for geeks, and I can't even fathom why this network still exists. And were we supposed to be fooled by the branding change into believing that SyFy would somehow bring us better programming? I know TV executives think that all their viewers are cattle with wallets, but come on... /sigh

All I know is: now I don't have to worry about it anymore. I don't have to sit through the trailers for movies I wouldn't take money to watch, or for shows that have about as much to do with reality as a week-long LSD trip. I don't have to feel like I'm being patronized by executives who think their new branding is fooling me.

Best of all, I don't have to "Imagine Greater" because I'm being so let down by the programs SyFy (MKG!) spews at me.

Farewell, SGU - you will be missed!

Adieu, SyFy - don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

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