No Krakana

Rambling Monday Edition for 02/08/2010

2010-02-08T07:18:00.001-06:00

Well, it just hit me that we've hit the second major milestone on the Arthur C. Clarke universe. Luckily, Hal still doesn't exist... unless you count the small device my beloved keeps in her purse.

All that aside, I had a busy weekend. So busy in fact that I did not get to watch any anime, nor read any manga. The only geek activity I did find a bit of time to engage in was further playing of Left 4 Dead 2. The reasons for this were an influx of party-like activities which my family was involved in. Friday night saw a party which my elder son was invited, Saturday saw a party which my younger son was invited, and Sunday was a party which my beloved was invited to.

But lo, and behold, there is ever geek news that comes across my desk and RSS Feeds.

The least of which is the latest FotJ information published today no less, about the cover to the sixth book in that series, Troy Denning's Vortex. Sadly, it involves Han, who is supposed to be an accomplished marksman, holding a gun at that insane gangsta angle.

Basically, showing that the artist has never fired a gun, and that most of the gun activity said artist has witnessed has come from Hollywood.

Poor Han. First Lucas messes with your character arc by making you shoot second, and now you're just a two-bit thug on the covers...

But, I do think I need to backtrack, as I've realized that I have been doing something geek related, but that it's such a fundamental aspect of my being that I hadn't even realized that I was doing it.

Of course, I'm talking about reading. I've finished (re)reading There Shall Be Dragons, and 2 B R 0 2 B and have begun (re)reading A Matter of Oaths and Fallen Angels.

I must say, I'm enjoying carrying around a micro-library in my pocket. Now, if only more places carried the consumer-friendly, DRM free ePub formats, I'd be happy to spend my a significant portion of my book money on eBooks.

Additionally, tangentially related to that last thought, everyone needs to read this.

Well, that's all for this week...

Monday Morning Playground!

2010-02-01T06:57:00.000-06:00

I've gotta say that I love my new phone. It has games, and the internet, and it yells "Droid" at me at more or less random times. This is all good, but especially on Friday when I was home sick. I spent most of the day in bed, and during those times when I was actually awake, I COULD have held a laptop on my lap to check emails and surf and what-not, just holding my phone was so much easier.

Of course, this weekend was not all sunshine and roses: it was also my eldest boy's birthday. My newly minted seven year old had a birthday party on Saturday, and got quite the haul of Star Wars goodies among other things.

And then in a fit of true brotherly love, he proceeded to torture the 3 year old by not actually opening every package. Sure, everything was unwrapped, but he left a couple toys still in their boxes. I was amused at the sheer perversity in the thought, and less than amused by the constant begging for access to the new toys from the younger offspring.

Yet, my son was not the only child with a birthday this weekend. An additional two friends had parties (and one had a birthday, but is having a party later this week), and one of them is of Japanese descent. Which is awesome, because now we have some Japanese candies at the house from the goody bags. The second friend with a party this weekend was the son of one of the Mandos, and both boys got to spend a good hour and an half at Chuck-E-Cheese.

Which, I must also point out that it was my youngest son who had to be literally stripped off of the Chuck E Cheese costumer's leg, so said costumer could do his job.

Now, I must get off to work, and maybe play with foursquare and see how well that works.

Monday Morning Rambling: The Droid Version

2010-01-25T06:14:00.003-06:00

Well this past weekend was my 10 year anniversary, and me and the Beloved Wife had a grand time. The festivities (at least the eating portion of them) started with lunch on Friday (sushi! sushi! sushi!) continued throughout dinner Friday night (taampas @ P.F. Chang's) and finalized with standard lunch fare on Saturday afternoon.

Of course, eating at Cheddar's wasn't the only thing that took up my Saturday afternoon. There was also a trip to the Verizon store, in which I came one step closer to becoming a part of the Singularity. Basically, I now carry around the sum total of human knowledge (or ignorance, depending on your POV) in my pocket. In! My! Pocket!

I'm still trying to decide what to call it, currently my choices include, Whistler, SELMA, Ziggy, and Mother Box.

Sadly, not all of the proposed festivities for this weekend went off without a hitch, since neither of us were feeling just 100% yet, we decided to forgo the movie experience and instead focus on getting caught up on our viewing of Sanctuary. Which meant that we watched a good 4 hours of Sanctuary this weekend, but did not get to go see Sherlock Holmes the way my Beloved wished to.

Oh well, it was a great weekend, and as I said, I now get to carry the Internets in my pocket!

Amusingly, that's not the only thing that's happened this past week. I finally received my second Christmas gift (apparently there was some sort of screw-up when my Beloved ordered it or it was on back order or something).

Anyways, I am now the proud owner of a set of of the Stargate coasters. This things are awesome, they have all the chevrons and the glyphs and even the blue puddle.

And for even more geek greatness is the fact that my 3 year old has used it for its intended purpose--that is the power of the Stargate Coaster. Of course he removed my drink from said coaster in order to utilize it for its intended function, but that's okay.

Well, that's all the time I have for this week, join me next week where I wish for more time yet again....

The Holidays Are Over

2010-01-18T06:13:00.001-06:00

And I'm regaining time. Well, at least that is the theory.

Of course, with the new anime season starting up, a new video game, and as always more and more books (much to my Beloved Wife's dismay), that theory does not always hold up well under the light of day.

On the book front, I have recently finished American Gods and was thoroughly happy with it, and I've managed to purchase Tobias Buckell's Ragamuffins. Sadly for me, this is the second book in a series, which of course means I must now go and see about acquiring his Crystal Rain novel. Amusingly enough, much like Doctorow's and Scalzi's works, I discovered his writing via a blog.

On the video game thing, I finally broke down and purchased Sins of a Solar Empire. I've been watching this game for a while now, and have never bought it mainly because I did not think that the enjoyment I would find in the game was worth the $50 (then $40 and then $30) price tag. Luckily, they brought said price tag down to $20 and the little economist in my head decided that yeah, $20 for that game is a worthwhile purchase and one should get $20 worth of enjoyment out of it. And I have, and I'm nowhere near finished playing with it.

Finally, over in the anime department, I've been bad. I know I said I was going to try to do episodic blogging last season, and I did watch 11Eyes, but I didn't ever really blog on it. Likewise, I'm wanting to build a nice review of t he series, but there is that whole "lack of time" thing going on.

Anyways, it's now firmly within the winter season, and I have tentatively made up my mind on which shows I'm going to watch this season:

Durarara!! (for what appears to be an awesome anime)
Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu (for the amusement)
Okami Kakushi (for the sick horror of watching car wrecks)

Alas, let us see if I manage to make it through the entire season watching all of them this time.

In manga/comic news, I feel the need to talk about something here that I usually reserve for my programming blog. As indicated by the fact that I have a programming blog, I am, by training and trade, a software engineer. As such, I practice on things. I build software for the sake of building it, much the same way that I write things for the sake of writing them.

One of those things that I have built, is called eComic. It's purpose is to display CBR/CBZ files. For those of you who are unaware, CBR is a file format which is basically a RAR or a ZIP file of a folder of a bunch of images. eComic (and other tools like it) basically display the images within said file in a sequential format.

Basically, it's a digital comic book. It is software that is both free and open-source, therefore have fun with it. My primary reason for building it is to learn new techniques therefore, I release both the compiled version for people to use, as well as the source so others can see what I'm doing within it.

Now, despite all those things I have been doing, I have seen a few movies recently, among them 9 and Astroboy. And as one might expect from previous proclivities that I have espoused upon this blog, I did find both enjoyable (actually Astroboy more so than 9 in a somewhat surprising upset of my expectations).

Oh well, they were both fun movies, now I just have to get the time to go watch Avatar, Holmes and The Book of Eli. Maybe this weekend which happens to be my 10^th wedding anniversary.

Yes, intrepid reader, you read that correctly! A mere 10 years ago, this Friday, I was ~~suckering a beautiful blond into being my wife~~ getting married, and have been happily within that particular state for all those years now.

I am a lucky, lucky man.

Oops! This didn't make it out yesterday....

2009-12-01T06:57:00.000-06:00

Well, it seems that I managed to break my publishing streak by 1 day. Of course that is primarily because of the fact that I overslept yesterday morning, but that's okay. At least I think so.

Truth be told, I don't really have much of anything to talk about from this past week. I went and saw Law Abiding Citizen (highly recommended) and purchased the Star Trek DVD (again, highly recommended) but with the holiday and then having to rake my yard (25 bags of pine straw/leaves!) I didn't have a whole lot of time.

Sadly, the anime that I have taken an interest in this season has been culled down to just 11 Eyes (and yes, I'm a horrible, horrible, episodic blogger, I know) so I don't even really have that to talk about.

BUT I have gotten my Fate of the Jedi: Abyss review written, and will have it posted up probably later in the week. Additionally, I've read through Death Troopers for the first time, and have started on its second read through in order to write its review.

Well, that's it for this week, now I just need to sit down and watch last week's Stargate Universe.

The Latest Thing to Drool Over...

2009-11-24T17:53:00.001-06:00

I'm a geek. I know it. I don't feel any shame, but I do have to fight the urge to make somewhat... random purchases of those things which tickle that inner magpie which lurks in the hearts of all Otaku.

And that magpie nature works for traditional geeks such as myself to those whose geek-dom involves things such as sports. After all, we have NASCAR ornaments for the Christmas tree right next to the Star Wars ones, thanks to my Beloved Wife's inner Otaku in relation to some blue and silver race car.

So, it's not that big of a surprise that I saw this pretty thing run across my RSS Reader and commenced drooling. After all it's a 1/350^th scale reproduction of the Space Battleship Yamato. I mean, how utterly cool and awesome is that?!?!

And it even comes with light-up engines (via a remote control no less!), and a number of the space battle planes that were used in the anime.

Over all, I have to say that the Yamato is one of the coolest space ship designs (if not necessarily the most practical).

Time for More Monday Morning Rambling...

2009-11-23T06:43:00.002-06:00

Hmm... well, I'm still in the process of re-reading Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Abyss in order to write its review. Sadly, the book has not even lived up to my memories of how it read the first time. It's bad mojo when a book does not age well.

Anyways, because these first FotJ novels were micro-books (in related to most other modern SF works I read) it shouldn't be too much longer before I have this second read-through done, and the book ready for review.

Also, Death Troopers should be arriving from Amazon in the next couple days, so good times there.

Something I have done though is gone back and re-watched one of my favorite animes from recent history: True Tears.

This is a story that has aged well. It's still a story about love, and change, and those that inspire us. I enjoyed it as much today, as I did during my first viewing of it, even thought I knew who was going to end up with who by the end of things; additionally, that foreknowledge allowed me to pick up on a few extra hints as to which way the story was heading earlier on.

And Noe still reminds me of my Beloved, just in the sheer vibrancy that she approached life, as well as the somewhat.... randomness which that vibrancy exhibited itself.

But in the end that's all okay.

Ah, well, I've blathered on enough for this morning, for now I'm off to work, but as I said, I'll be getting the Abyss review up soon, and hopefullly other things here and there as I find time for them.

Yet Another Monday Morning

2009-11-16T06:00:00.000-06:00

Well, that was a busy weekend. My dad's 60^th birthday was on Sunday, so someones in the family decided that it was a fine time for a birthday party.

A couple of pertinent facts here:

I hate traveling.
I live 5 hours away from my family
Did I mention that "hate traveling" bit?

So, I got to spend hours upon hours in the car this weekend. Ultimately, it's not that big of a deal and I got to see my elder brother and his family, but still... traveling.

That said, it was a fun-filled, geek weekend. To start, as my Beloved Wife was driving down to Pensacola on Friday night, we were behind a tanker trailer for the better part of an hour. Now, normally, this wouldn't be that much of an issue, but due to the exact distance that my wife was pacing said trailer at, and the fact that it was night, the circle of the tanker was lit up.

So, after a while--and utterly out of the blue--my Beloved Wife said, "You know, that looks like a Stargate."

I glanced out the window, and realize that yes, it does kind of look like a stargate. Which is when two things hit me:

My wife made a geek reference
My wife made said geek reference before me

And before I could open my mouth to say such things, my wife spoke said realizations.

Oh, I do so love my Beloved Wife, especially as she becomes more and more... well, geek-i-fied.

So, the birthday party went off without a hitch. We were able to surprise my dad without giving him a heart attack, so good times right there, and I spend most of Saturday morning with my elder brother, his kid and my kids, in which we had a grand discussion on anime.

And my Beloved Wife, as you're reading this, I'll have you note that HIS wife watches some of the anime with him.

Ah well, such was my time spent this weekend, and now I must go forth and toil in the exciting world of software engineering....

Monday Ramblings for 11/9/09

2009-11-09T06:31:00.003-06:00

Wow, it was a fun-filled weekend in my household.

It was my youngest son's birthday, and my wife is a firm believer in the concept that every birthday should be celebrated with as many people as possible.

So, we had a party at a park. The little megalomaniacal Ewok had two friends his own age show up, and we had a few older kids for his elder brother to play with as well, so fun was had by all. Of course the pizza left me with a bit of indigestion, but that's kind of expected, what with it being pizza and all.

Of course such things as family celebrations cut into the very important GEEK TIME that I have, and as such I failed to read Abyss for the second time (a requirement for its very late review). Yet, I was able to get caught up on Stargate Universe and Sanctuary. These are both shows that I'm enjoying immensely, though my beloved finds SGU a bit... boring at times.

So, I've got to review a couple of episodes of 11Eyes and Abyss, and then I feel the need to take my eldest to see Astroboy sometime soon, but if his behavior doesn't improve that may not get to happen.

Also something that should be happening soon is me getting a phone upgrade. I'm currently looking at the new Verizon Droid, as it is a great phone device (I played with one on 11/6 which was "Droid Day") and since I'm on Verizon I would be able to keep my plan. Nice, "win-win" thing here.

I'm also very interested in the accessories that are rumored to go with this device. Things such as a table-top dock or a car dock both of which will make them switch into relevant modes. The car-dock transforms the UI into what supposedly looks like a standard GPS device while the home view for the table-top mode is an alarm-clock.

The car-dock is retailing for about $30 while the table-top dock has yet to be released.

And of course I'm in the process of downloading Eclipse and the ANDROID SDK in order to see what type of fun and games I can cook up for this highly interesting piece of hardware.

We live in interesting times.... at least for us geeks...

Monday Morning Rambling 11/02/09

2009-11-02T06:01:00.000-06:00

Gah! I now have two episodes of 11Eyes which I need to review. Frankly, I suck at episodic reviewing, mainly because I get so easily distracted by other things--like Crunchyroll's collection of anime.

Basically, I re-watched Myself;Yourself over the past few days and realized just how.... freaky some of the character arcs are in that thing. Especially the one revolving around the Watsuki twins .

Oh well.

On the children front, the Beloved Wife and I got yet another example of our youngest having an affinity for megalomaniacs. Remember, this is the kid who's favorite character to play-act as from the Star Wars franchise is Emperor Palpatine.

So, Sunday after church we all went to Burger King. Well, their current kid's meal toy promotion is for some Spongebob thing. We got two, a Plankton and a Patrick.

My wife was holding the things, trying to decide which one to give to each child, when the youngest spoke up, and while pointing towards Plankton exclaimed, "I like that one." A moment later, my eldest spoke, asking for Patrick.

That crisis of differing toys averted, my wife handed them out. Then a moment later glanced at me, her head shaking slightly, as she realized that once again the youngest chose the bad guy as his toy-of-choice.

I fear that my son may be the reason that Real Life Super-Heroes are starting to pop up....

I Have The High Ground!

2009-10-26T06:42:00.000-05:00

It doesn't take long to find a conversation about when the appropriate time to watch the Star Wars movie for kids is. In fact, if you pop in the phrase "when should kids watch stars wars" into Google, you quickly come back with some results, and once you scroll past the Amazon and Walmart adds there is the question being asked by a Mommy Blog and a Dad-Blog (a perennial favorite entitled Geek Dad).

Now, I can admit that I held off the movies, despite my unending love for the things for my eldest child. He was 4 or so before he really sat down and watch one of the movie and around 6 before he watched episode 3 for the first time (and that was an "edited-for-TV" version at that).

My youngest though, well my youngest got to see the movies by virtue of being there while my eldest watched. There was no not letting him watch since Brother was there doing so.

Which leads me to responses to both of the blogs listed above:

GEEK DAD: Both of my boys are obsessed with Geek and Star Wars. If you raise a child to love the Geek he'll love the geek. If you raise a child to love sports he'll love sports. My boys, well, they get a geek dad and a sports-loving mom, as such they can be seen imagining a fight between Jimmy Johnson and Darth Vader.

The Mommy Files: Let your kid grow up. For centuries, children were raised with the specter of death and destruction. Classic fairy tales (not the Disney-fied wimp stuff seen today) featured scenes as gruesome (if not more so) than what is featured in the Star Wars series.

Well, now that I've got that out of the way, you may be wondering why on earth I'm bringing this up now? And it relates back to the fact that my youngest son (who's like two-weeks from turning 3) has watched the entire series multiple times, including Revenge of the Sith.

So, he's very familiar with the scenes and the dialog (and his favorite character to play-act as is Palpatine), as it has long been a tradition in my wife's family to quote movies.

Well last night, after bath time, I dropped the youngest on the couch next to my Beloved while dealing with getting the elder through the ritual. After the elder was settled and soaking, I returned to the living room and found my youngest standing on the couch over his mother (who was watching the Florida/Miss. State game at the time), and then he announced:

I have the high ground.

Which of course means that he wins the battle; and he let us know that as well.

After I recovered from my laughter, I dropped onto the couch beside the Beloved Wife and she glared at me for a moment before saying, "You've ruined our children you know. Ruined."

I wisely refrained from reminding her that it was actually her that allowed the youngest to watch that particular movie for the first time.

But fundamentally, she's right.

I set out to raise children who had the same passions and drives as I do, and a big part of that desire to learn, and build the future is tied up into SFF and other geek culture. I firmly believe that it's the geek in me that forces me to question things to the level that I do. Books such as Fahrenheit 451, Starship Troopers and Foundation formed a core of my intellectual development while things such as Star Wars and The Princess Bride and Tolkien's works built the framework upon which my imagination rides.

So I'm glad that my son has the high ground.

Here's to hoping that he keeps it.

11 Eyes Episode 2

2009-10-20T06:45:00.000-05:00

My Thoughts:

First off, I got to say I like the opening sequence. I'm not sure why, it's just a mixture of the visuals and the music, but I like it. At the same time, the ending credits just don't do that much for me. I think the ending is a bit more melancholy than the opening and I'm just not into the emo at the moment.

But, I've got to admire at least one choice in character design here, blonde/light brown hair, blue eyes, and glasses—so reminiscent of my beloved. Which brings to mind something interesting, I tend to enjoy a series more if there's a character who reminds me of my wife. Think Noe from True Tears or Ayame from Asu no Yoichi.

With that digression out of the way, I enjoyed the episode, though I wished the exposition that the group managed to spout out had provided a bit more answers. That said, I do understand the need for building suspense. I just wish they could build it a bit more…quickly?

What gets me is the way that the girls around here seem to… gravitate around the male lead. Yuka I can understand, she's obviously set up from the very beginning as a romantic interest, but then how the Shrine girl and the Exchange student girl react to him… well, it's odd to say the least. If that's just a hang-over from the source material, I think they could have integrated the story a bit better.

Episode Synopsis:

The episode begins with our two heroes running from the turd-monsters, and then once again surrounded as the sky breaks.

After the opening, we find out that that shattering thing was just a fake oiut, and they're still in the red-night, and still surrounded by the turds. Then a sword comes flying in, and Shrine-girl is there for the rescue. Small talk ensues, and the turd-call wails out, and then we see some girl stuck in a giant crystal. Then some running and exposition about powers, and we find out that Shrine girl's name is Misuzu.

Then the trio get into another fight with the turd monsters, and Pigpen-girl is shown beating folks up with the chains. And the Trio are running again, and Kakeru wants to go "save her" even though none of them know who "her" is. Then Kakeru's eye starts hurting making him collapse. When he stands up, they see this chick with swords fro hands and bunches of red eyes who tells them that they can't go any further.

Scissor hands girl fights Misuzu, and is whooping up on the shrine girl, until shrine girl pulls out her magic.

The trio makes it to the giant crystal girl who begs them to save her because she's been captured. Misuzu—wisely if you ask me—wonders why on earth they should be doing so, but Kakeru is all like "Misuzu has the right idea," but Yuka speaks up and says that they should save her.

About this time, the other talking demons (for lack of a better term) show up, and we find out that shrine girl's magic doesn't work around the crystal.

And then the main bad guy tells us all that Kakeru is all important as he signals Kakeru for death via Scissor Hands

Then we see the school nurse and some grey-haired kid comes in and drops onto a bed, and they flirt with one another.

Then we switch back tot he Trio and find that they've been deposited back into the real world, in the middle of a shopping mall.

So of course they go and get a burger, as that's what teens do whenever they're in a mall.

While they're eating, they chat about special powers and things and others from their school also get dragged into the Red Night.

Then Misuzu asks Kakeru to take off his eye patch, and when she sees his yellow eye, she gets a special feeling in her special place. And I wish I was making that up. As Kakeru put his eye away, Misuzu asks Yuka if she "felt that too." Again, I wish I was making that up.

So Yuka and Misuzu are walking home, and they have a moment, and Yuka hugs him, and he gets that special feeling. Though this one is more of the murderous intent of the bad guy.

Then the comic relief shows up and tackles Kakeru. Once he's back on his feet, Kakeru looks up and things he sees Pigpen—or his sister, but it turned out to be Shiori (the exchange student from the previous episode). Then Yuka notices that Shiori and Kakeru are giving each other their… well it's not "angry eyes."

And we get another scene change, with Kakeru going into where he works to tell his boss that he won't be in that night, and he finds a girl in a maid/waitress outfit who is apparently a new hire. Kakeru notices that she has a cut on her hand. Maid girl quickly shoves her hand behind her back, and introduces herself as Hirohara Yukiko—and quite forwardly instructs these two whom she had just met to call her by her first name, and kind of forces them to allow her to use their first names.

Maid girl then makes and serves them coffee, and as she does so, we see her wound bubble away to flawless skin.

And another scene change, and it's Kakeru dropping Yuka off at her house, and she tells Kakeru that pigpen/sister they had seen at the park before the red night was an hallucination. then they hug and he tells her again that he's going to protect her.

And look, another scene change! This time it's blue flames, and a first person perspective as someone is walking to a chair. Then hands are touching and there's heavy breathing, and Kakeru wakes up.

Then Kakeru is in the school library and finds a book titled "The Maiden of Crystal Palace." Then Yuka shows up and they talk about researching it, and one hopes they're talking about the Red night. Well Kakeru pulls down the book, and sees pigpen/his big sister on the other side of the stacks.

he rushes around, and finds a note that states that he was the one who woke up the demons, and he collapses in pain from his golden eye.

And then there's the ending credits.

Finally, we see Yuka trying to comfort the still in pain Kakeru, and then gets all freaky. Kakeru notices that, and turns to look outside and there is the black/red moon, even though they're not in the red-night world.

The Caves of Steel

2009-10-19T23:15:00.001-05:00

In June, 1954, the master of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, Isaac Asimov, wrote the Caves of Steel. Fundamentally, it was a mystery novel with science fiction elements. One of those elements, is the "caves of steel" which are huge city-complexes covered by metal domes and supporting tens of millions of people.

Now, why would I be writing about this?

Well, that's because a team of engineers have plans on how to protect the city of Houston, which involves a giant dome. I read the the little bit of text associated with it and I'm in awe.

While it's not STEEL (rather it's a type of plastic) the thought of a city encased in a giant dome, and housing literally millions of people just utterly appeals to the SF geek in me.

I mean, if they do it, it'd be worth going to see, just to say that I was in one of Asimov's Caves of Steel.

What a Fun-Filled Weekend

2009-10-19T06:10:00.000-05:00

Well, the eldest offspring and I went on a Cub-Scout camping trip. In the middle of the country.

In what was effectively 40 degree weather.

That felt like 20.

All in all, despite the fact that it was evilly cold, the eldest had quite a good time. In fact, he absolutely adored it. He spent hours running around with his pack mates, shot an bow and arrow and a BB rifle.

Sadly, the youngest apparently spent the entire time me an the elder were gone hunting around the house for me and the eldest child.

Well, after the campout ended, me and the eldest spent a bit of time fishing (read: losing lures on rocks/limbs/etc)—so of course the boy was interested in fish and what not.

On the way home from dinner my eldest once again asked what happened to his goldfish on the move from Pensacola to the frozen wastes of Mississippi. This is a question that's been brought up a few dozen times over the past two years, and the Beloved Wife soundly informed him that we had already answered said question and he knew what had been done with the thing.

To which he instantly responded "So, we ate it?"

How could we not laugh about such.

Anyways, what with my weekend involving woods, mud, and cold weather as opposed to the more traditional cartoons, geekery and the internets, I didn't spend a lot of time thinking/doing/watching GEEK stuff. BUT on Sunday night me and the Beloved Wife did watch The Haunting of Sorority Row. A perfectly amusing Lifetime "horror" movie.

Which of course is keyword for a standard Lifetime movie plot plus ghosts. It's the type of thing which makes one long for Mansquito.

Anyways, expect to see my review for 11Eyes episode 2 sometime soon, as well as me getting the new Star Wars novel Death Troopers.

Well, that's enough for this week, for now, it's time to get to work…

11 Eyes--Episode 1

2009-10-12T23:35:00.004-05:00

My Thoughts:

There's been a lot of comments out amongst the anime blogs about how this show feels like a rip-off of Persona, and fundamentally, I can see it.. I can see it, much the same way that I can see how Gundam is a rip off of Macross or Battlestar Galactica is a rip-off of Star Wars. Which is to basically say that just because something uses simliar tropes, and has a similar conceit, doesn't mean that it doesn't have it's own story to tell.

In fact, I personally think that this was the strongest of all the openings from the Fall Season (but I've not seen EVERY thing that's coming out this season yet). I'm interested in the character, and think that this particular set of leads is much better than that the pair that we get in say Sacred Blacksmith.

Additionally, I like the character designs here, at least for our erstwhile protagonists. The antagonists appear to leave a lot to be desired--but that's more of my own personal preference as opposed to any inherent problems with the design.

In the end, there's not a whole lot that goes on here, as it's primarily introducing the main characters and gives us a hint of the primary concept of what's going to happen.

Hopefully, the rest of the episodes here will continue to live up to my expectations.

Episode Summary:

The episode begins with a flashback, showing some odd things happening between a brother and sister, and the boy's friend, where the boy is seriously hurt and the sister falls down dead. Then we get the opening credits.

After the Opening, we get this shrine maiden who is playing with fire, in order to see visions... or something. Then we find the hero of the show (Kakeru) sitting on top of the school's roof staring at the moon. He's joined momentarily by one of the females of the show, Yuka. Then we find out that Kakeru's older sister is the girl from the flashback at the start, but he way it's shown there isn't exactly how she appeared to die in the original flashback.

Then we're shown another girl.

Then it's back to Kakeru and Yuka as they meet up with two (Tadashi and Kaori) of their friends from school and have random talking designed to show the tsundere elements of Kaori and the idiocy of Tadashi--but hey, Kakeru likes talking to them.

Then it's a talk about sales.

And then there is some ramblings on why Yuka doesn't live at the orphanage any more. Oddly, I got the feeling that Kakeru does not live at the orphanage anymore either, but that's never actually touched upon.

Then they decide that yes, they'll go to the sale. Which, makes Yuka extremely happy.

So, they're on this bridge and well.... flashy lights happen. and the sky turns red, and the rivers run with blood, and a third of the people are stirken.... no, wait that's the Revelation of Saint John. But the skies do turn red and suddenly all the other people have disappeared.

Which is when Yuka realizes that it's probably affected her parents as well. So they backtrack to Yuka's house, and as Yuka is crying because her parents are gone, Kakeru sees something moving around, and they take off at a run.

The stop for a moment and one of the things appears, and screams bringing more of them.

Well, Yuka screams and the world shatters and suddenly the people are back and the sky isn't red any more.

Then you get the scene where everyone is staring at Kakeru as he's holding the now unconscious Yuka.

Then Rome is on fire which wakes up Kakeru. Or maybe it was Yuka, but a girl and a destructive cataclysm are much the same thing at times.

The two then talk, and discuss things like being scared and how cute Kakeru is while sleeping. And yes, it is as... disjointed as that.

Then we get to see some other guy. Just walking to school and ignoring some girl.

Then it's a back to Yuka and Kakeru and a cloud scares Yuka... which is understandable when the last time she saw clouds covering the sky it was because they were turning red and stuff. They talk some more and Yuka cries.

Then the bell rings, and the camera pans over to see Pigpen from Charlie Brown... but it's a girl.

Then the class is being introduced to a new exchange student who gives Kakeru the freaky eyes. Something pointless involving Tadashi happens and the new girl walks over to Kakeru just in time to make Yuka faint. So, Kakeru carries her to the infirmary.

Where they run into the guy from earlier, who's a bit rude. Then the school nurse shows up, and asks Kakeru about his eye, and Yuka if she's dating Kakeru.

Then we get to see the red headed shrine maiden again... and oh look, she goes to the same school of course.

Then it's after school and our two heroes are walking home, and Kakeru asks Yuka if she wants to go shopping. Then we see Pigpen again.

And Kakeru turns down a free meal and talks about stuffed penguins with Yuka.

Then they're at the bridge from earlier, and decide to take the long way around due to the freakishness from earlier. Then it's a shopping montage and we see Pigpen and transfer girl.

Then they're in a park, and the girl who was terrified/embarrassed to discuss the CONCEPT of Kakeru being her boyfriend with the school nurse, somewhat brazenly asks said boy to lay his head on her lap.

Then they're all happy, and roses--which of course means that they see Pigpen again and then the world shatters and does that whole red skies thing with the turd monsters.

Then, once they're surrounded we get a screen shot of something even odder than the turd monsters, but these things can talk.

Once that is over, the turd-monster attacks and then it's time for the ending credits.

Wait, after the ending credits, there's a scene were Kakeru is futilely beating a turd monster and Yuka is getting restrained by a tentacle. At which time I smack my forehead and am incredibly glad that this thing doesn't air a few hours later in the night. Then it's the preview for next week's episode.

Monday Ramblings for 10/12/09

2009-10-12T06:44:00.000-05:00

And it is yet again, a Monday morning. My sons are home today (as it's Columbus Day here in America) and by the time that I had left for work, were already half way through (what I'm sure will be one of many) their first viewing of Monster's Inc. Fantasy rocks.

Well, the main geek things I did this weekend were watching the episodes of Stargate: Universe and Sanctuary. I've got to say that this latest crop of SciFi (or SyFy for the politically correct) shows is utterly awesome.

Then of course, I've been watching the first episodes of the fall season of anime, and folks can expect my review for the first episode of 11Eyes fairly soon.

But for now, it's time for me to run off to work.... Bills to pay and all that...

:)

2009-10-09T16:35:00.003-05:00

Book Giveaway

2009-10-07T13:26:00.003-05:00

Jacob Parker of The Yodeling Dwarf left a comment on a post earlier about a book giveaway which his blog is performing. It's a hard-cover copy of Curse of the Spider King, and you can enter here by signing up for Mr. Parker's (who apparently has his own book in the works/about to be published) newsletter.

Amazon describes Curse of the Spider King thus:

The Seven succeeding Elven Lords of Allyra were dead, lost in the Siege of Berinfell as babes. At least that's what everyone thought until tremors from a distant world known as Earth, revealed strange signs that Elven blood lived among its peoples. With a glimmer of hope in their hearts, sentinels are sent to see if the signs are true. But theirs is not a lone errand. The ruling warlord of Allyra, the Spider King, has sent his own scouts to hunt down the Seven and finish the job they failed to complete many ages ago.
Now 13-year-olds on the brink of the Age of Reckoning when their Elven gifts will be manifest, discover the unthinkable truth that their adoptive families are not their only kin. With mysterious Sentinels revealing breathtaking secrets of the past, and dark strangers haunting their every move, will the young Elf Lords find the way back to the home of their birth? Worlds and races collide as the forces of good and evil battle. Will anyone escape the Curse of the Spider King?
Learn more about The Berinfell Prophecies at www.heedtheprophecies.wordpress.com. Create your own tribe. Connect with fans through the forum. Win pre-release chapters and the opportunity to have Wayne and Christopher at your very own book party!

Stargate: Universe - Pilot

2009-10-07T06:31:00.000-05:00

Well, we (the Beloved Wife and I) watched Stargate: Universe last night, and I have to say that I truly enjoyed it. Which is great, as I was worried that SGU was just going to be the next season of Star Trek: Voyager.

There were a few parts where the story seemed to lag, and the editing and where they chose to stick commercials just flat out sucked, but those were relatively minor issues.

So, it appears I have a new show to watch, and with the second season of Sanctuary starting up on Friday, I seem to have even more TV watching to do.

Which is both awesome (SF on tv!) and sad (it's TV!) at the same time....

I need to go to the Mothership....

2009-10-05T06:31:00.000-05:00

As I reported on Twitter a few days ago, my youngest fully announced that he needed to go to the Mothership.

I'm n0t entirely certain where he got Mothership from, as I don't remember there being one in Star Wars or the other SF movies/tv shows that he's seen. Of course this is the same kid that fairly regularly says "You've got to be kidding me," to the most random and odd things. Such as the fact that the chicken on his plate...is chicken.

Ah, I've got to love my children.

Especially when they're off somewhere for a few hours so me and the Beloved Wife can go see a movie. Which happened to be Pandorum. And I must say that I really enjoyed it. Despite (or maybe due to, I'm not sure yet) the overt "Video game" feel to the movie.

The other geek thing is that the fall season for anime has started up. I've caught the first episode of Kampfer and don't think that one will be sticking around, though if nothing more promising shows up then I may have to revisit that particular decision. Then I've also downloaded The Sacred Blacksmith and Nyan Koi! though I've not watched them.

Well, that's the state of this geek for the week....

The "I am so horrible to my children" post…

2009-09-28T06:49:00.001-05:00

I did something horribly mean to my youngest Saturday morning.

It was truly unintentional, and I felt really bad about it.

Despite the fact that I was laughing.

What happened was that we were in the Halloween section, and there was one of those life-sized, animatronics skeletons that chat people up when they walk near it. The official designation is a "Life-Size Skeleton Butler Halloween Décor. Basically, a 6-foot plastic skeleton in a suit and a top-hat and holding a candle-stick (it doesn't really say 'butler' to me, but what do I know?)

Well, this one happened to have one of those "Press me to try" buttons on a string, so I felt certain that it wasn't motion activated—or at least not currently since the "try me" tag was still in the thing.

So there I am, I snatched up my youngster, and began walking towards that annoying skeleton, as I'm saying "You want to give him a kiss?"

Now my boy—and he's two remember—is taking this all in stride. He's not laughing out loud, but kind of giggling slightly.

And as I moved closer to the thing, I became even more certain that the motion detector was offline, as as I walked towards it, bouncing my boy about in its line of sight, it was not doing anything.

Well, about the time we get around two inches from that skeleton's face, the thing apparently sensed the movement and activated.

Glowing red eyes.

Moving head.

Clacking teeth.

And a voice.

Now, I wasn't expecting this thing to turn on, so I was a bit startled. I mean, this thing is popping on, more or less by its lonesome. My boy though… well…

My boy freaked.

I mean, really, really, freaked. We're talking "America's Favorite Home Video" level of freak. We're talking that kid watching the maze video on YouTube freak.

We're talking one of those shrill girly squeals.

His body nearly jumped out of my arms.

Just that whole, terrified pre-schooler routine.

Then he was clinging tightly to me sobbing, and I realized that I had moved ten feet back down the action alley and was whispering to him trying to get him to calm down.

A few minutes later, I took him back over to the thing and got him pushing the button to both start and stop it's routine. We got him touching the skeleton so that he could FEEL that it was plastic.

Of course that didn't stop him from discussing the monster the rest of the way through the store.

Monday Ramblings for 09/21/09

2009-09-21T18:36:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, I wonder if I should forget this blog, and my others. I update far too randomly for my personal tastes, and I do have the best of intentions to update more.... I think I may need better scheduling or something. That may do it. We'll see.

Anyways, one of the things I do want to do is get back into episodic reviews of anime. In truth, I've not watched much of anything from this summer season (nothing really struck me as all that great, including the second season of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi. I'm still on episode 14 of that.)

But, it's okay, because the fall '09 season is soon to start, and I'm doing my preliminary picking on what I'll try to watch now:

Kampfer -- This one I'll at least give a shot to. Which means I'll get the first episode, and base my decision on those 22 minutes
Nyan Koi -- just the description has amused me so I don't see how it could hurt to try it...
11eyes -- provided they keep the ecchi factor down, this has promise...
Tatakau Shisho-The Book of Bantorra -- I'm going to have to give this one a try
Seitokai no Ichizon -- I do have a soft-spot for slice-of-life comedies
Inuyasha: The Final Act -- I will be watching this
Seiken no Blacksmith -- I'll give it a try....

If I can get one or two shows to do reviews on then I'll be happy.

Beyond that, I have had a good geek time since my last post. I got to watch District 9 and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. And I even got a David Weber book, and a Star Wars novel (both of which I need to write reviews on, but I'm apparently a horribly lazy person so...).

Of course, I do have the standard set megalomaniac children going for me to ensure I keep my life filled with random bits of geekery.

I also have recently discovered that geekery is contagious.

It seems that my eldest son had a friend over a lot during this past summer, and now said friend is as excited and ecstatic and obsessive concerning lightsabers and Star Wars as my two boys are.

Personally, I think it's great fun.

His parents... not so much.

But hey, that's the joys of a life of geek-ness.

Now, if only I could get my youngest to root for the good guys as opposed to wanting to throw lightning around like Emperor Palpatine....

Lego Voltron!

2009-08-17T08:32:00.004-05:00

I'm impressed.

Lego Voltron on Flickr

Work in Progress

Now, if only I had the time, energy and LEGOS to pull something like this off...

Monsters In A Bed

2009-08-09T22:07:00.001-05:00

After church and lunch today, we pawned the kids off on the MIL, and then me and the Beloved Wife went to see a movie (the new Harry Potter).

Well, after the movie was over (~6:45) we grabbed some dinner for ourselves, the boys and the MIL and went back to her house to eat. After some conversation and what not we finally left about 8:30 or so.

Not a problem, sure we like having the boys in bed by then, but it's summer, and being up late every now and then won't harm them.

But that's not the amusing part.

On the way home, the youngest, calls out, "Mommy, are there monsters in my bed?"

Of course, the Beloved Wife answers no, and I'm kind of smiling.

Then the youngest asks, "Mommy, are there monsters in my window?"

Again, with the negative response, and I'm still amused by how adorable the kid is.

A few minutes later, we get another question, "Mommy, are there monsters in my closet?"

Again, the Beloved Wife answers no, and I'm both trying to not laugh and wonder where he'll ask about monsters next.

Which apparently meant that the eldest son felt the need to step in with his words of wisdom.

"There are no monsters," he says, and I'm amused by it.

"Monsters are fake," he says a few moments later, and I almost point out that the younger munchkin probably doesn't understand what "fake" is.

"Monster's aren't real," he says before I get the chance to point out the fake bit, so I continue driving in silence.

"There are no monsters to scare you," is what appears next. I must admit to frowning, but I can't really see how this could be a bad statement, and above that I'm still amused.

Then it gets even better.

"There are no monsters to get you."

I didn't get a chance to respond before the elder is speaking again.

"There are no monsters to eat you."

My mouth opens to say something, but I'm still not fast enough.

"There are no monsters-"

Alas, what he was going to say is lost to the world, as I finally got my brain wrapped around what was happening, and I blurted out, "Little Man, stop trying to reassure your little brother!"

Silence reigned in the truck for about a quarter mile.

For a moment, I was hoping that the youngster hadn't picked up on things.

For a moment, I actually had that hope.

Then from the back seat, came my youngest son's voice, "Mommy? Are there monsters to eat me?"

Liberating Cookies

2009-08-08T21:44:00.002-05:00

I bake.

It's just one of those things that I do. I find it comforting.

Not all that manly I know, but it appeals to the engineer/geek in me. I mean it involves the mixing and blending of various compounds, and applying heat in order to create something useful.

It's fun.

But anyways, tonight, I baked cookies. Chocolate chip ones. They're gooey, and tasty.

And as usual when baking, it brings out the INTERESTING in my family.

There I was in the kitchen, and the smell was fairly strong as I'd checked on them just a minute or so before.

Then I looked into the living room, and saw my eldest son standing next to my Beloved Wife.

He looks at her, and says, "There was a tasty smell coming into my room."

I could tell that the Beloved Wife was trying her best not to laugh. "I know," she said to him, and then sent him to bed with dire warnings that he'd not receive any tomorrow if he didn't get himself to bed.

So, I'd finished the baking, and cooled the cookies enough to stash them into an air-tight container for storage over-night. You always want air-tight containers, as air is the hardening agent of the baked-goods world.

But I digress. After stashing the cookies, the Beloved Wife and I each ate one and a half of them. I was good, and went off to play on the internet.

Then the Beloved Wife walked into the bedroom (where my PC is) with a cookie in hand.

She glanced at me, and smiled, and said, "I had to liberate it."

"Why?"

"Because it was trapped. I couldn't handle the screams."

"Ah," I said, shaking my head slightly.

"What?" came her reply. "I'm a compassionate person. I had to stop the screams."

This received the raised eyebrow from me. "If you're a compassionate person, why did you decide to mash it into itty-bitty pieces with your teeth?"

Without missing a beat, came her reply: "It's stopped screaming."

I laughed. After all, what can one say to that?