Episode 87 of Pressed & Bound is online! That tree back there is so fake. In this week’s episode we discuss:

Books:

• The Graveyard Book

Movies:

• A Simple Plan

Right click and download the eighty-seventh episode here:

• MP4 261mb

Comments or questions? Email us at: pnbfans(at)gmail(dot)com

Or watch online by clicking here!

Today I got myself a fancy new Barnes & Noble Nook. The long and short of it is that it’s pretty fun to use and the screen looks great. I don’t have much time right now to discuss a whole lot about it, but I made a fun unboxing video:

I hope to have some more in depth thoughts about it soon, once I’ve had a chance to play with it more. Enjoy!

This is a very short message, but I am just testing to make sure that all is well with the hosting transfer and for all intents and purposes I think it might be. Please let us know if anything is not working for you like it should or if you see something that’s been there forever that looks wonky.

The other benefit besides me saving money is that I was able to use put all of the posts and such into a new database; a new database that supports php 5.0, that is. Wordpress is moving to that being more or less the standard with all of their new revisions and I’m glad that I can finally update the guts of the site to these new version now. Before, I was stuck with an older, less secure release because the database on the old hosting account was using php 4.whatever and there really was no “easy” way to transfer it all. Which is not to say that simply making a new database, putting all the old files into it, and then relinking it is difficult, per se, but it’s a pain in the ass and I really didn’t want to do unless I had to. And I had to when moving to this new hosting plan.

That’s all for now. I should probably get to editing the last episode of the show soon…

Well, not really, but kinda.

I just wanted to inform everyone that in the next couple of days you might see some outages here on the site as it gets moved from one hosting plan to another. In the end it should all look the same and everyone should be happy (the URL will be the same), but there might be some downtime in the middle, and for that all I can say is that it might be a good time to go read a nice book. I don’t know where you could find any suggestions on good books, though, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled…

Today’s CLWED comes to us all the way from the internet. Stetler Goodhart (bedsits@bikecap.nl) brings us an excerpt from chapter 11 of Samuel Hopkins Adams’s Average Jones:

Tisement in the other. The adventurer-bug flourished a farewell to the girl with his antennae, and retired within to advise his fellows of the charms of freedom. “Very well,” said the girl, in demure tones, though lambent mirth still flickered, golden, in the depths of the brown eyes.
“If you persist, I can only suggest that you come back when Judge Ackroyd is here. You won’t find him particularly amenable to humor, particularly when perpetrated by a practical joker in masquerade.”
“Discovered,” murmured Average Jones. “I shouldn’t have vaunted my poor French. But must I really take my little friends all the way back? You suggested to the mystic voice within that I might be invited inside.”
“You seem a decidedly unconventional person,” began the other with dawning disfavor. “Conventionality, like charity, begins at home,” he replied quickly. “And one would hardly call this advertisement a pattern of formal etiquette.” “True enough,” she admitted, dimpling, and Average Jones was congratulating himself on his diplomacy, when the querulous voice broke in again, this time too low for his ears. “I don’t ask you the real reason for your extraordinary call,” pursued the girl with a glint of mischief in her eyes, after she had responded in an aside, “but auntie thinks you’ve come to steal my dog. She thinks that of every one lately.” “Auntie? Your dog? Then you’re Sylvia Graham. I might have known it.” “I don’t know how you might have known it. But I am Sylvia Graham–if you insist on introducing me to yourself.”

I have no idea what is going on in this passage, but that Sylvia Graham sounds like a firecracka’!

The best part about these work emails is that they all include a picture with them, but I’m too terrified to open it. As much as I want my work computer to be slower, adding a virus or any sort of craziness to the poor machine would be a bad idea. The world may never know what “envoy.jpg” was, but the mysticism of unknowing is not lost on me. Bravo, Mr. Goodhart; bravo.

Today I’m going to be talking about a series that we’ve discussed before on the show in brief. Well, more accurately, I talked about the first book during Episode 80, back in the day. The series in question is George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire.

As mentioned on the show, this series is not for the feint of heart. I’ve currently read three and a half of these novels (I’m 300 pages from finishing the fourth book), which comes to the sum total of roughly 2,600 pages. From what I understand, the series originally started in seven parts, with Martin currently writing the fifth installment, but we shall see how it all ends up. It’s very interesting for me to be reading a series that is so well established that also has years and years to go before finishing. I am reminded of Steven King’s Gunslinger series, which has seven novels that took upwards of two decades to complete. I really hope that is not the case here, but only time will tell. Read more…

Curveball! Just to keep things interesting, this week’s Haiku Thursday is on Saturday.

Garret’s Haiku

Suck it, NBC.
Really, you’ve done a horrid
job. Please just stop it.

Conan O’brien,
You have been given the shaft.
It’s a bum deal, dude.

Dear Mr. Leno,
Everyone wants you to quit.
P.S. Suck it, Jay.

Bravo Sir Kimmel,
You have said the things needed.
The world gives you thanks.

In two weeks we’ll know
the devastation of all
this. I’m with CoCo!

Andrew’s Haiku

I forgot Thursday!
Crap, now I gotta think up
some witty poems.

Uh, what Garret said
up there goes double for me.
Jay Leno’s a twat.

Also, you should click
on that Jimmy Kimmel link–
both funny and apt.

YES, they’re back! I recently switched my email programs around at work and wouldn’t you know Outlook’s ability to find junk is marginal at best. Anyhow, I’m excited for the first CLWED in some time! Here we go:

This email was sent from Whetstine (liquefiable@vandergarde.nl) with the subject of “tation, these objects would.” Turns out the following is from The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Read more…

Episode 86 of Pressed & Bound is online! We unintentionally shoot in near total darkness and Garret nearly chokes to death. In this week’s episode we discuss:

Books:

• A Lesson Before Dying (Oprah’s Book Club)

Movies:

• Paper Clips

Right click and download the eighty-sixth episode here:

• MP4 251mb

Comments or questions? Email us at: pnbfans(at)gmail(dot)com

Or watch online by clicking here!

One full week into the new decade and the world has yet to explode. We’ll just have to wait until 2012; I’m still counting on our Mayan friends to come through.

Garret’s Haikus

Laundry, oh laundry,
Why must I forget to do?
Carpenter jeans; yep.

No, not jeans made by
The Carpenters, but ones with the
lil’ hoop on the side.

I should just cut the
hoop out. No one will be the
wiser. ‘Cept Jesus.

Oh frozen wasteland,
In times passed you had the name
of “Oklahoma.”

I really do not
want this “3d” thing to take
off. Really, it sucks.

Andrew’s Haikus

This week, Andrew’s haiku are fortified with swears!

On Avatar in three-fucking-dee!

Avatar sucked, y’all.
Even in 3D, it’s just
FernGully in space.

Hopefully we can
go another fifteen years,
James Cameron free.

Christmas fucking rocked!

Assassin’s Creed 2
is so freaking beautiful,
plus sex and murder.

I can’t wait to crack
open Left 4 Dead 2 and
shatter zombie skulls!

Speaking of which, does
anyone want to play on
XBox Live sometime?

Volume 2 of the
Sandman omnibus surpasses
all expectations.

Jack Frost fucking kicked our fucking asses.

The blizzard of the
decade hit Oklahoma,
caught us all napping.

This week, some schools are
closed because “it’ll get cold!”
and I say, “Bitch, please.

Our politicians
are just earning the crucial
under-eighteen vote.”