The Dresden Files

The Thing:

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

Mix one part hard boiled detective, one part powerful wizard, and two parts sarcastic wise ass and you get Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, the only professional wizard in Chicago. The Dresden Files follows his adventures trying to clean up the nastier supernatural bits of the underbelly of the Windy City.

Why it is worth your time:

Yes, that is the protagonist riding a reanimated t-rex.

Yes, shit like that does happen ALL THE TIME.

This book series is outstanding for a number of reasons, but the easiest selling point is all the awesome shit people in it do. Seriously, I could ramble about character development and plot pacing and all kinds of other shit and you would ignore it and focus on the fact that Harry's mentor pull a satellite out of orbit to destroy a vampire's castle.  

Why people will tell you it's not:

Well, there was this show...

Mediocre is a good word for it.

It wasn't bad as far as SciFi channel shows go, but it had about nothing to do with the source material and  was generally sub-par.

Errands

So, my new school schedule is kind of wonky. I end up having to be there at the crack of dawn, have class for an hour, then wait around for around six hours before my next class. Poor planning on my part, but in my defense me options were limited when I made my schedule at the end of last semester. Also, I was drunk.

We are talking Hasselhoff drunk here

Anyway, Monday I stroll out of my first class and think about all the time I had to kill and figure What the hell, I mine as well be productive with my time. I fished my to do list out of my pocket and gave it a once over.

1. Wake up

2. Eat a balanced breakfast (cold pizza and Irish coffee)

3. Attend lecture (Bio 103)

4. Remain conscious for lecture (Bio 103)

5. Cash in coins at coin star

6. Rotate tires

7. Dissect pig fetus (Bio 104)

8. Pick up ingredients for Atomic Cherries (for party Saturday)

9. Dissect pig fetus (Recreation)

What luck, there was grocery down the street with a liquor license and a coin star to boot! I could knock out 5 and 8 in one trip. I swung by my car and grabbed my change dish and headed down the street, whistling to myself as I went.

Looking as crazy as possible is pretty much the only way to 

travel in Flint without getting shot.

It was shaping up to be a pretty solid day, all things considered. Even with the surcharge, the coin star spit out a receipt for over 30 bucks, and the store carried both cherries and black cherry vodka (I find it works better then everclear). I stood in line and waited, a small smile on my face. Things were going great.

I made it to the front of the line and the cashier, a little old lady, looked down at my items.

"Um, will that be all?" she asked, hesitation in her voice.

"Yup," I said, smiling and producing the coin star receipt.

"And you will be paying with...cashed in change?"

"Indeed I will." I smiled again.

She paused, looked at the clock on the wall (it read 9:30am, on the dot), and then reached out an clasped my hand in hers. The look on her face was grave.

"Son, I don't know you, but you need Jesus"

Going forward

So there it is, the story of where I was for a while. I am sure my absence has saddened you all greatly, and for that I apologize.

Editors Note: Your arrogance is astounding.

Anyway, we have made some changes around here, so let me give you a quick rundown.

1. Schedule

SFT will be updating Tuesday-Friday at noon. This will give me a chance to sleep off my hangover on Monday.

Editor's Note: Lazy bastard.

2. Site Redesign

Taking advantage of some of the new features Google rolled out for Blogger, SFT now looks a whole lot nicer. Our new aesthetic is courtesy of Tina Chen. Also, there is now a Staff and About page that seems to be so popular around the internet at those "professional" websites. Nothing on them for now, but I will work on getting some content up there as soon as possible.

Editor's Note: The same way you were going to work on keeping to your update schedule?

Also, through a bit of HTML brilliance (and by that I mean not having to write it myself), the social network sharing links are now more streamlined and functional. So go ahead and share your favorite SFT posts by email, Blogger, Twitter, and Facebook!

Also, Google Buzz.

....My life got flipped...

"So, you...uh, want to talk about it or...?"

"No" I rolled down the window and lit the cigar dangling from my mouth. My car had been impounded, so Jim agreed to give me a lift back to my place.

Jim's sick ride

(Last time I give you a ride, asshole)

"Alright," Jim turned his attention back to the road. "Well, at least now we have a decent idea of whose house you tried to burn down."

"Actually" I said, examining my discharge papers. "This said I tried to burn down Gaga's haus."

  My bad Gaga....again

"Jesus," Jim sighed. "You seriously have no idea what happened that night?"

"No, and I don't think I particularly want to know" I took a long drag off my cigar. "I am just going to let the past be the past, no sense dwelling on it."

"That is...surprisingly mature of you."

"Why thank you. I am trying to do the adult thing" I ashed my cigar out the window. "And the adult thing to do is repress any and all emotion on the subject, drowning it in alcohol and nicotine when sheer will fails."