This is a favor I did for a friend who does a political blog which deals with a lot of things going on at the University of Washington campus. Because of that for the longest time the blog had a logo that had a strong resemblance to the Uiversity of Washington’s Husky.
Recently he got some threatening letters from a third party pointing out potential copyright issues. It suggested a cease and disist would come soon.
Whatever the issues they were probably doing him a favor since whether the the image was legal or not it was derivative as hell.
I was asked to work on a husky logo that was in no way shape or form the UW mascot. The basic idea I had was something lighter and cuter than UW like the tone of the blog suggested.
When I was on the way out yesterday I heard some crows going at that. Looking up I saw what they were mobbing on the top of a tall tree something fairly large and tawny. Hoping this could be another diurnal owl sighting I ran back into the house to get my binoculars.
Thankfully it was still there when I got back, and I got to get a much better look at it. It was not an owl. Even at this distance I could tell how big it was (when they are mobbing something crows double as a unit of measurement) Considering the only other hawks I see around here were too small I was pretty sure it was an eagle since the only other raptor that big out here are Ospreys and I could tell this wasn’t one. It had the large beak of an eagle so I’m about ninety percent sure of my identification. The only thing that made me uncertain was the color. As I said it was a light tawny and most of the young eagles I’ve seen were darker, even in mid molts.
Unfortunately the crows chased it off before I could go get my bird book. But still nice. One of the things I like about living in this town is that you can almost take bald eagles for granted. (I’m told there are about fifteen nesting pairs in city limits) but still seeing one from your front door is pretty awesome.
Well I’m excited. I mean… of course I’m excited. This is the second half of the third book A Storm of Swords and I look forward to seeing what they are going to do with it. It’s interesting normally I tend to be an annoying pedant when it comes to adaptations of books but in Game of Thrones I am enjoying watching how all of the little pragmatic changes add up and snowball . I am enjoying being constantly being surprised despite knowing what is going to happen having read the books. It’s like they are using the source as a basic outline and following it in a completely different direction than George R.R. Martin did.
The other thing I like is how different an actor’s performance makes the character. Most notably I have trouble imagine Charles Dance’s Tywen Lannister suffering from the blinding hubris that the Tywen Lannister from the book does.
Finally I’m looking forward just how they are going to end the season. It was tricky to imagine at first since this is the second half of a very big book. If the formula that the writers have been using for the past seasons they will have the season climax on episode nine. For season three the climax of the halfway point of the book with the Red Wedding was an obvious choice. But Storm of Swords ends with at least three major climaxes. (My fellow readers will know the ones I mean.) It will be an interesting jugging for the creative team and I can’t wait to see how they pull it off!
Most importantly though is I can’t wait to hear what kind of music Ramin Djawadi puts “Hands of Gold” to.