Blake Schwendiman's Blog and Blook

I can't tell you how much I've been looking forward to the beginning of season two of Heroes. Last year when the series began, I wasn't 100% sure that I was going to like Heroes. It didn't take too many episodes, though, for me to become completely enthralled.

I hope that the writers can keep the energy and mystery of Heroes up to last season. I think they can. I have a few personal issues with some of the things I've seen in the previews for this season already, but I know that with this series, nothing you see is necessarily the way it is.

So, I look forward to the first episode airing tonight at eight. I'm sure this is just the first of many posts about Heroes this year.

Posted by Blake Schwendiman at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The official site for National Treasure: Book of Secrets is now online.

That is all.

Posted by Blake Schwendiman at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you liked either of the Fablehaven books by Brandon Mull, you'll be glad to know that he's releasing a new book tomorrow.

Here's the overview from Amazon:

What if there were a place where you could get magical candy? Moon rocks that made you feel weightless. Jawbreakers that made you unbreakable. Or candy that gave animals temporary human intelligence and communication skills. (Imagine what your pet would say!) Four young friends, Nate, Summer, Trevor, and Pigeon, are befriended by Belinda White, the owner of a new candy shop on Main Street. However, the gray-haired, grandmotherly Mrs. White is not an ordinary candy maker. Her confections have magical side effects. Purposefully, she invites the kids on a special mission to retrieve a hidden talisman under Mt. Diablo Elementary School. However, Mrs. White is not the only magician in town in search of the ancient artifact rumored to be a fountain of youth. She is aware that Mr. Stott, the not-so-ordinary ice cream truck driver, has a few tricks of his own.

The Candy Shop War is not in the Fablehaven series, but I have heard from several reliable sources that it's just as fun to read. I'll be ordering my copy from Amazon tonight and I'll let you know what I think when I'm finished.

Posted by Blake Schwendiman at 04:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I found this flyer taped to my house this morning.

Wow. This flyer has to me listed among the worst ever created and distributed. Let's analyze.

First, the cardinal rule of printing, emailing, texting, blogging, et cetera is to never use ALL CAPS. Whatever you think you might be accomplishing by using all caps, you're wrong. It's nearly impossible to read and it's just plain annoying.

Second, there's no information about who is providing the service on this flyer anywhere -- no company name, no contact phone, no address. So, just for the sake of argument, let's say I'm interested. Who do I make out the check to? Who do I call if there's a mistake made? What if I'd like to talk to them about the painting before I agree to the work? I infer from the fact that there's no contact information that the people who are doing this would rather not have me call and complain about leaving junk flyers taped to my home. I infer further that they therefore believe that what they're doing won't make most people happy. If that's my first impression of your business, do you think I'm going to let you do anything to my property?

Third, don't try to scare me into using your service. The statement, "homes that are not adequately numbered may possibly cost lives" is completely ludicrous. The emergency services in my area work better than that and I know it. To tell me that painting my house number on my curb will improve emergency services at my house insults my intelligence and frustrates me even more than simply finding poorly crafted junk left on my home.

I'm sure the person who developed this flyer isn't reading my blog, but if you are marketing and advertising I recommend you spend a little time reading Seth and Brian. If you learn something from them, you won't offend me with your advertisements.

Posted by Blake Schwendiman at 08:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If I had a superpower, today I would wish for it to be the ability to slow or stop time. It's been over a week since my last blog post and it feels like it was just yesterday.

I really do have a lot of things happening ... I just haven't made time to write about them. Gotta fix that.

Posted by Blake Schwendiman at 04:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)