No Krakana

My Poor Faith In Humanity...

2009-06-30T22:16:00.002-05:00

I've got to admit something... I'm something of an optimist about humanity. I can't help it, it's part of being a big fan in speculative fic. Even the most despairing versions of a dystopic futures are, at least to me, about the innate survivability of the species.

Yet, tonight... tonight it has been broken, beyond all belief.

You see, tonight, I went on a movie date with my beloved wife. We went to see The Proposal.

And as it started there was a preview for the upcoming movie New Moon.

Now, that in and of itself, is not that bad. What was bad was that a group of teenaged girls a few rows ahead of us clapped at the end of it.

Clapped.

And cheered.

As this happened, I felt my faith in humanity, and my hope in the future intelligence of my species, just... break.

Maybe one day I'll get it back... let's see what happens at the previews for the upcoming Harry Potter movie...

Review: Fate of the Jedi: Omen

2009-06-29T20:36:00.000-05:00

Today's review is for the second novel in the Fate of the Jedi series, entitled Omen (ISBN: 978-0-345-50912-3). The premier Star Wars novel by author Christie Golden, Omen clocks in at 236 pages (not counting the 15 page or so preview of the next novel). Ms. Golden is a rather prolific writer, especially in the category of media tie-ins where she's done work for that other space franchise and Warcraft. So, with both of those factors (i.e. that she's never done Star Wars but has done media tie-ins) in mind, I delved into novel quite ready and willing to forgive minor characterization and continuity issues that may have sprung up.

Alas, I have once again been betrayed by my mere expectations of performance.

And not for the better. But more on that later.

For, there is something that desperately needs to be brought up here. Which is I'm Henry VIII, I Am. Now, the reason for this, is that the bridge to this song from the 1st and 2nd verses is thus: Second verse, same as the first. Which, sadly, is a fairly accurate description of this book.

The plot has 3 main pathways: crazy Jedi, Luke and Ben's spirit journey and the other plot point. The crazy Jedi path reads pretty much like a duplicate of the path from Outcast in which a Jedi goes bonkers, ranting and raving and then is captured. Since nearly a third of the novel is dedicated to this, it feels derivative and unoriginal. Worse, it feels like a rehashing of the the first quarter of Outcast.

But that still left us with 2 plot lines in which to get excited about. Or it would if one could get excited about Luke & Ben's little journey of self-discovery. Unfortunately, I couldn't. Again, a plot line needs something in which we become invested in it. It needs an element of suspense or danger, or just something which means we get emotionally invested in the characters; it was this something which I found lacking in this plot thread.

Ultimately, I did find the 3rd of the threads compelling. I was excited to read about the character, and wanted more of it. Which is scary--the information focusing exclusively on the nominal bad guys of the series should not be the most compelling and emotionally involving of your plot lines. There's something off about that, and that fact damages the rest of the book.

The reason for the compelling nature of this 3rd plot line can be attributed to the main character which inhabits it: Vestara Khai (a Sith Tyro and apprentice). She's probably one of the better characters introduced lately. I enjoyed her a lot more than any of the young Jedi apprentices that we've seen recently, and sadly, I'm more interested in knowing what happens with her character than I am about the mental-break-down Jedi.

Of course, Vestara gets only a short amount of the book focused on her. We also have Cilghal, Jaina, Jysella Horn, and Luke and Ben Skywalker to look at. Overall, Ms. Golden has a firm hand on these characters. In the broad strokes, she gets their personalities and major character quirks. In general, she does a good job.

But she falters in the fact that it doesn't read quite right. For example, she has in one scenario, where Ben and Luke are enjoying a meal together this line: "But right now, they were simply two bachelors eating dinner and talking, and formality had gone out the air lock, and Luke didn't mind one bit."

This is fail. Major, utter, fail. First, Luke is fundamentally a farmboy. That is one of the defining aspects of who he is, he was raised in what amounts to a backwater city, on a farm. To be blunt, he's a redneck hick, who fixes his own tractor and likes to shoot and drive fast. While I was not raised on the farm itself, my grandparents were the equivalent of Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen. Additionally, my dad was raised in one of those backwater towns. It's instilled in me that you eat properly, and you don't talk with your mouth full. It's not a matter of formality, it's a matter of respect. Likewise, my sons get in trouble for doing so.

Secondly, it just doesn't ring... true that a father would think of him and his teenaged son as two "bachelors." That phrase has certain connotations, the least of which is that they're on the prowl for the next proverbial piece of meat--and I'm not talking about the nerf everyone seems to be eating in this book. Additionally, the use of the word is simply wrong there. Since I am married, I can never again be a bachelor. It is an impossibility for me to be one. I can be a widower or a divorcee, but I can never again be a bachelor, as by definition it is either a human male who has never been married, or in general biology, a male who has not mated. Of course, this two things could all be my own biases flowing through, but it was a rather shocking turn of phrase, and knocked my suspension of belief on its head.

Ignoring the Skywalker boys, I have two other character complaints. The first of these is related to Jysella Horn. I cannot call it a characterization issue, as she has had no characterization prior to this point. But, she and her friends call their little clique "The Unit" and they continue to use that phrase well into their mid-twenties. Which seems a bit childish, or juvenile to me. I realize that in the Star Wars galaxy 80 is the new 40, but I did not realize that that implied that 20 was the new 13.

Additionally, why "The Unit?" I mean, Jagged Fel came up with better phrases and names than that for his date. Couldn't one of these four have at least a bit of creativity? Maybe the "Big Guy" whose defining characteristic was "big, slightly dumb brute," but no, everyone in "The Unit" is just a mere cardboard characters that were needed for what is effectively a juvenile-reader trope.

But speaking of Jag's creative naming brings me to the other complaint: why do Jaina and Jag go through so many hurdles in order to have a date? Let's look at this, the two lovebirds arrive at a restaurant, walk inside the restaurant together, and then jump through a dozen hoops in order to go somewhere else for dinner (or was it just an implied booty call)? He's the leader of the Empire and the son of an Imperial Baron, and she's the daughter of Princess Leia and General Han Solo--they should be used to a little bit of aggressive journalists and seeing their names in the sludgenews. Above that, they knew that the reporters were going to report on their movements, and the fact that they were having a date with one another. They weren't even hiding that, so why all the cloak and dagger nonsense again?

Now, as I stated earlier in this review, I was expecting some minor continuity errors and things of that nature. What we got instead was a proverbial slap in the face of continuity. I almost wrote a few hundred words here about the Jedi Temple, but realized that it's just as easy to say look up the history of the Temple of Wookiepedia and then re-read the fifth paragraph of page 10. Then 2 pages later, she speaks on how the Jedi Temple was "home" and how it was a "special place" for every Jedi, when earlier works have made it clear that their home base were Yavin IV and then Ossus. Luckily, that was the worse offense in regards to continuity flubs--or I just stopped looking for them after page 15.

The theme here was non-existent. I could not find one. There was nothing in this book that screamed (or whimpered for that matter) "Hey! I'm a lesson!" There were a number of short fights, but again, there was no HERO who struggled against overwhelming odds. There is nothing ominous about this novel, and only 1 literal possibility to explain the title. I have literally nothing to put here, and to me it seems that this was merely media-tie-in writing at its worst; it feels as if the author did not have a story to tell, she had a series of events to describe.

All that said, this was still an enjoyable read. It probably won't be one of those novels that I consistently return to, but it was well-paced, the style and tone works wonderfully with Allston's and unless Denning makes changes to his, will work well with his. And I'm interested in this new character--though I'm left wondering about the rather specific age that she's been given. Especially in how it relates back to Ben.

Now, here's the sad part. Taken entirely out of context, and by itself, I would have rated this book an acceptable Star Wars novel. Not as odious as some, but a bit better than others. Unfortunately, it has two major strikes against it for me to do that.

The first is that it cannot be taken as a stand alone novel, it must be compared to the novel immediately prior to it since this is part 2 of Fate of the Jedi. In that it fails. It reads like a repeat of the first novel for too much of the book. I constantly had the sense of "been here, done this" which is a horrible feeling for a brand new hard back novel. This leads me to actually dread the next book, because I fear my brain will stop repeating I'm Henry VIII, I am and start repeating This is the song that never ends...

The second strike against it is that it is short. At 236 pages it just did not feel like enough content to justify a hard-back price. It is noticeably thinner than any other hard cover novel which I have paid more than US$25 for. That coupled with the fact that one comes out of the novel feeling as if large portions of it are mere rehashes, is horrible. If the Powers That Be had built this series the same way that they had done Legacy of the Force, with 3 hardcovers and 6 mass-market paperbacks, this wouldn't be an issue. After all, a lot can be forgiven, especially size-wise, when one has purchased a $7-8 paperback as opposed to a nearly $30 hardback.

This is sad, because this wants to be a good book. It wants to be the fun escapism that one expects from Star Wars. Unfortunately, it is lacking. It's lacking cohesion as the three plot lines only tangentially touch. It's lacking a traditional protagonist/antagonist structure, as we still do not have a Campellian Hero, and worse, the most compelling character is our erstwhile villain. It's lacking because it feels more like the YJK than the Black Fleet Crisis. It's lacking, because it's just not enough story to warrant a $27 hardcover.

In the end, I fear that this can only receive a 0.8 out of 4.

Finally, and this had no bearing on my review score, but I despised what happened on the last page. Just utterly annoyed me to no end.

Second Verse, Same as the First!

2009-06-29T05:06:00.002-05:00

Much in the same way that the fabled "I'm Henry the VIII, I am" verse ends with the above title, so is that how I felt when I finished the recent entry in the Fate of the Jedi series, Omen.

But more about that when I finish writing up my review.

Sadly, that's not the only sad bit about SF I have from this weekend. I went to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and was utterly underwhelmed. It's an eighth of the plot of the first one, and half again longer.

Frankly, that's two major genre releases that have been rather dismal failures at the movie theater. That leaves us with the following to pull out a decent summer movie season:

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
9

There's just nothing else on the list until James Cameron's Avatar that interests me.

That said, there was one thing of interest from going to see Transformers, and that was the The Last Airbender teaser. Now, I have seen it on the computer already, but these things just have a better feel when they're projected in forty feet of light. I just hope that it has at least half of the awesome from its source material, and that the director in question will be able to channel at least half of the awesome from Unbreakable.

Big note to M. Night--there doesn't have to be a trick reveal. Please, just don't.

Alas, that's my SF geekery recap, now, I'm off to get ready for work...

The Last AirBender Teaser

2009-06-23T07:59:00.002-05:00

Thanks to OhNoTheDidnt over on LJ, I have now seen The Last Airbender teaser trailer, and it is goood :D

Monday Morning Rambling-Post Dad's Day Edition 09

2009-06-22T06:36:00.000-05:00

Ah, here I am, once again finding myself realizing what a long time since I last pushed something out on this blog. As has been so often the case, this is due to the sheer amount of work which I've been doing recently.

Of course, my life isn't all work and no play, I've gone to see Star Trek twice now, and my two geeks-in-training are coming along quite nicely.

In fact my youngest has been watching so much Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, that he's taken to doing two things, the first is that he's taken to playing out the various scenes using his Galactic Heroes figures.

Which isn't the worse of the possible things that can be done in regards to Episode III.

No, the other thing that my youngest has decided makes the perfect thing to do is thrust out his hands, with his fingers splayed out, and announces, "Power!"

I'm not sure if I should be amused by his play-acting skills, or terrified that he has decided to play-act Darth Sidious.

Oh well, I'm certain that either way one looks at it that it's a good thing. At least that's what I tell myself at night.

Of interest as well is the fact that I downloaded teh Hulu desktop client and have been watching anime on it. Soukou no Strain and Bleach are both there, and it's quite a bit of fun to be watching Bleach again.

Alas, it's now time to head off towards work, here's hoping that I'll have time from here on out...

Fan-Made Green Lantern Trailer

2009-05-26T07:21:00.000-05:00

Now, I think this rocks!! Also, Nathan Fillion works great as Hal Jordan.

Cute but Clueless

2009-05-05T12:27:00.009-05:00

I was at lunch just a bit ago. Since it was Cinco de Mayo, me and the Beloved Wife went to a Mexican restaurant in the area. Now, in the normal course of events, that's not a big deal. The Beloved Wife loves her some Mexican food (much like me and my sushi), but today since they were busy, we were sat in one of those two-person tables, with one side of it fairly close to an 8 top table.

Now, here's the grand part.

The party their filled, the table, and closest to me and the Beloved Wife, were a man and a woman, both in what I'd guess to be their mid to late twenties.

In the course of a discussion of upcoming movies, the man, quite rightly so, stated, "I can't wait for G.I. Joe to come out."

The girl across from him, gets this nice confused look on her face, and replied, "What?"

At this point, a reasonable person, would have condescendingly patted the poor unlettered girl on the head, and made some comment about her not knowing anything. Sadly, the man wasn't that reasonable.

His response, "Well, you know guys, we're all just little boys at heart. We love our science fiction and action adventure movies. This one is based on G.I. Joe."

So, Ms. Unlettered, pushed her plate away from her, and placed her hands on the table to either side of it. Then she leaned forward slightly, and in utter, and total sincerity, responded, "Oh, I so know what you mean." She then glanced from side to side furtively, before continuing. "I mean, I actually own G.I. Jane."

Then, quite oblivious to the look of shocked confusion on the man's face, and even the amazed incredulity on my Beloved Wife's, she continued talking!

"And I also own Indecent Proposal."

Now, just so everyone was clear on things, because the guy was starting to sputter as his poor brain attempted to formulate a response, she then added in. "Because you know Demi is just awesome. I mean, whenever I watch G.I. Jane, I get so pumped up, and spend a few weeks constantly working out, hoping to be as tough as she is there."

Of course, at this point, she must have realized the grave error which comparing oneself to the Demi was, for she finished up this brilliant thought with, "But then I just get lazy again and eat an Oreo."

Before too long, the group finished their meal, and removed themselves from the restaurant. Which is probably a good thing, Ms. Unlettered was on her second margarita and I doubt that she'd have anything more intelligent to say with the consumption of a third.

Once they were gone, and me and the Beloved Wife had free reign to begin the inevitable laughter, with a smirk on her face, my Beloved Wife dubbed Ms. Unlettered, "Cute, but Clueless."

Freaky Mondays

2009-04-27T06:21:00.003-05:00

I love a good marketing ploy as much as the next guy. Especially one aimed at kids, and their parents. But sometimes, enough is enough.

What brought that one? Why the discovery of this picture:

I had flashbacks to that scene in Alien, where the monster comes ripping out of that guys chest.

Then I had flashbacks to Total Recall.

Still trying to figure out which one made me feel worse, but I'm thinking Total Recall.

Of course talking about flashbacks, StarWars.com has released an image of their new t-shirts in which they take a classic piece of artwork by Ralph McQuarrie and turn it into an abomination promoting their rather ugly characters from the Clone Wars television series.

It's one of those things which make me cringe upon seeing it.

In honor of that, I have created this:Well, I was amused.

Now that I have that out of my system, it's time to start thinking about the upcoming summer movie season. It is after all, the time of the year when genre movies seem to get released the most.

Anyways, on my list for things I absolutely must see are:

Star Trek
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
9
Where the Wild Things Are
Astroboy
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra

And of course, there are things that I want to see, but am willing to forgo (or at least happily wait for DVD):

Battle for Terra
Pandorum
2012
Planet 51
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Angels & Demons
The Time Traveler's Wife

Well, that's enough lists for this week I think.

Monday Ramblings for 4/20/09

2009-04-20T13:09:00.000-05:00

I know that it's no longer morning, but I still managed to get out today's rambling. And in honor of the day, though why it needs honoring I have no clue, except for maybe the two things geek that I've really enjoyed watching the past few days--or at the least made me laugh.

The first was the awesome movie, Fido. This came to my attention via a discussion on Zombies, and I have to say it is one of the best zombie movies I've seen. I laughed. Then I laughed some more. And even my beloved wife--no big fan of zombies mind you, she didn't even particularly like Shaun of the Dead--laughed.

The second one, which I enjoyed less than Fido, was a recent episode of CSI. Specifically, the episode featuring the Star Trek spoof, and the SF Fandom convention. Good times, though the jokes were a bit labored, and harbored that whole "let's point at the geeks and laugh" vibe.

Regardless, it is now time for me to return to my labors, and finish what I'm trying to get done.

Review: Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Outcast

2009-04-13T21:30:00.000-05:00

The latest in post-RotJ Star Wars EU is a 302 paged book from Aaron Allston entitled Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Outcast (ISBN: 978-0-345-50906-2). Which for ease of use, and general laziness on my part, I shall henceforth refer to it merely as Outcast. Outcast was a fun, fun ride, a continuation of the trend, started by Millennium Falcon, that replaced the NJO/LotF focus on depressing, non-fantasy story lines. Set 40 years after A New Hope, it begins with a tight focus on Valin Horn's situation where he's coming under the sway of what I can only assume is the major plot point of Fate of the Jedi--a plot point which is described on the dust jacket as "a mysterious psychotic break." While the novel itself was a fun read, well-paced, nicely structured, and generally oozing the "feeling" of the GFFA, I was still left with the feeling of something being off.

I must confess something here, even after two reads, I'm still trying to figure out just what the plot is for this story. There's a lot happening, and a lot of characters doing things, but it's not really tightly coupled together with a plot. As stated above, we have this nice defined "A" plot involving psychotic Jedi, and there's the whole peace summit that folks are talking over, and suddenly, we're dealing with three distinct groups, doing three distinct things, none of them really related to what I perceived as the A or B plots from the opening chapters of the novel.

Ultimately I think the problem is in the fact that there's not a clear-cut villain for any of the various plot points which our cast-of-heroes find themselves. The only exception would be the one of the narrative thread bit where the environment itself is the antagonist. We have all these narrative threads--and no true antagonists in any of them. Sure, the protagonists are doing things against people (or the environment) but none of them come across as a threat to the hero; they're just macguffins to get through.

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I just enjoy a book more when there's an overarching reason for the novel; when there's a good guy and a bad guy.

In the end, I think what we're seeing here, is what one often sees in the first chapter of a Dean Koontz novel; it's the section where people tangentially related to the plot, but aren't a focus of the story. do things to let you know that bad things are happening.

Speaking of people, the protagonists here are the usual mixture of Star Warriors in the form of the remaining heroes from the movies and their remaining children. In fact, the Dramatis Personae is somewhat... lacking this time around. For the start of a nine-book series, Outcast only features eleven characters in the DP (for comparison, Betrayal had 28 characters listed). What's sadder, is that if they had added just one more character to the DP, then it would've just been a listing of POV characters rather than the list of characters that play a role in novel--and no, they're not the same thing.

But, even then, we can cull our list of characters further, gathering just Luke, Ben, Jaina, Han and Leia as primary--and by extension important--characters.

First, Luke Skywalker, hero extraordinaire, and beloved Jedi Master--actually remembers what it means to be those things. He's wise, he's decisive, and he's not scared of silly soldiers with blasters and itchy trigger fingers. But above that, this book manages to successfully pull off what both LotF and the NJO failed to do: which is remove Luke as the power-house that can solve the problems of the overarching plot in 5 minutes, and thus leave the Fate of the Jedi "A" plot to the little Jedi to plod along until end of the nine books (which I have a bad feeling will feature Luke returning and setting things right). The thing is those earlier stories did remove him as instant problem solver, but they did so at the cost of his characterization. Allston managed to do this, and still keep him as the decisive hero that Luke is supposed to be.

The only thing that left me annoyed with his characterization here was a discussion between Luke and the Chief of State, in which he takes the time to poke at her over her old flame in order to protect his stance in the conversation, but when she attacks Kyp Durron for something he did 30-something years prior and was pardoned by the New Republic for, he doesn't bring up things she did--and was not pardoned for--during the same time frame. It seemed like he was willing to let Kyp get fed to the wolves there. But a single conversation where he doesn't act quite right is better than where he is way out in Left Field in terms of character in 12 out of a 19 book series .

So, after this beautiful handling of Luke Skywalker, we must glance over at his partner-in-crime for this particular novel; his son, Ben. For the first time, I've actually enjoyed Ben's characterization. He's no longer the cardboard cut-out which appeared in the first half of the LotF, additionally, he's coming into his own as a valid character--and an interesting mixture of Corran Horn and Luke Skywalker. I distinctly like the thought of a Jedi who approaches things using investigative techniques (including interrogation ones) rather than just following their whims and calling it the "Will of the Force."

Unfortunately, he's still not a character that just screams HERO the way Luke did during the early years, and Anakin Solo did during the early NJO. Still, his character is a lot more sympathetic and generally good, than the little StormTrooper which was Ben in LotF.

Speaking of good little Jedi, we next get to look towards Jaina--who is anything BUT a good little soldier in this novel. She's a perfect example of her mother's wit and fire and well, rebelliousness in relation to authority. Additionally, she seems to finally be over her soap-operatic ways and Mando-adoration and has thus settled into her role as Sword of the Jedi. But, still, she lacks that special something which would make her the Hero of the story, but she's much closer to having it than Ben, or her LotF incarnation.

The final duo of our primary characters are the perennial couple of couples, Han and Leia Solo. This was the same Solo couple that we got in last year's Millennium Falcon novel; loving and happy, and willing to do just about anything for a friend.

I do feel the need to bring out one additional detail that Outcast needs praise on, and that is the fact that long-time Jedi Master Kenth Hamner actually gets a personality above and beyond "Stern Master #2." Yes, he has that whole retired military officer thing going for him, but just how he interacts with others, including (or maybe especially) Jaina, display him in a much more.... personable light.

Settings are slim here. We get Coruscant, Kessel and Dorin, home of the Kel Dor and the prequel-era Jedi, Plo Koon. Of those, both Kessel and Dorin get decent descriptions, and emphasis on the alienness of the planets as opposed to such terrestrial planets as Corellia.

Now while dealing with the Theme of this novel, I have to start and wonder if that sense of disquiet, that "not rightness" that I felt while reading was intentional. The book was titled "Outcast" and there were numerous references to being exiled, and leaving things behind. I have to wonder if the author intentionally built what should be, and on the surface is, a fundamentally sound Star Wars story but structured in such a way that when one thinks about it, it leaves you with a sense of disquiet. As if the story itself is an outcast from the greater narrative which is the expanded universe--or at least our expectations of that narrative.

Which in turn leads nicely to the lack in that narrative, that absence of a Campbellian Hero, which has been at the crux of how everything has played out since the last Campbellian Hero was forcibly removed from the narrative. We're still dealing with the ramifications of the Anakin Solo-shaped hole in the narrative; we're looking at the fact that the narrative exiled itself from the Hero's Journey which is at the root of Star Wars.

We're missing things here, things are separated from how they "should" be. Even above and beyond Luke's exile from Coruscant, this is a book, a narrative, that has exiled itself from the morality play roots of Star Wars. Outcast is a Good vs. Evil story with no defined evil, and no defined Hero to fight that evil. Just a cast of protagonists, going about doing things they feel they need to do. It's not Campbellian, if anything it is episodic operatic drama; a literary version of a daily soap opera or procedural police drama from American TV so to speak.

It's not bad per se, but it's not classical Star Wars either. And that separation, especially coupled with narrative threads that should be Star Wars is what lends itself so well to that disquiet, that sense of disconnectedness with the narrative, that I felt while thinking about the story.

As unintended end result of editorial influence on the author to have XYZ happen in the book, and nothing else, it works. If it was intentional on Mr. Allston's part (whether due to editorial influence or not) it is utter and sheer genius.

And on that note, I feel it might be time for my final thoughts on the novel, and my final thought has to be that I liked it. I liked the way that the absence worked with the greater narrative, but above that I liked the fact that I actually enjoyed it while reading. Sure there were an issue or two that made me stumble over the narrative. I'm not entirely certain how well I enjoy the characterization of Tahiri Veila here, or how much I enjoy the thought of Tarc coming back into the overall storyline. on the flip side of the coin, I did enjoy seeing a handful of secondary, non-Jedi characters during the Kessel scene.

In the end, I have to give this a 3.8/4. All the good things done right here, far outweighs the few bad things--and even on just the chance that that sense of disquiet I felt while reading was intentional makes me all sorts of happy.

Rambling in Awe of Idiocy

2009-04-13T06:39:00.002-05:00

Saturday, me and the Beloved Wife were wondering about, performing a few errands. As we were leaving one store, we were jumped so to say by one of those groups asking for money-well, this one was selling baked goods in exchange for money.

Now, here's a secret. I've never really given money to those folks. Even when in high school, and those who were performing the road-block were folks I know. Sure, on occasion, they'll tickle my fancy, and I'll give something, but it's rather rare for me to actively be the person instigating the donation.

Well, the group in question was the Lego Robotic League. It was just one of those things that I couldn't not do. After all, it was LEGOS and ROBOTS. My poor beleaguered wife, was confused for a few minutes as we perused the baked goods. But, she had figured it all out by the time we made it to our car with the brownies. At which time, she just gave me one of those exasparated sighs.

One does have to love the Beloved Wife.

Which is part of the reason I'm somewhat dumbfounded by some recent news out of Japan. Well, the article ws from 10/31/08 but I just found it a few days ago. The article in question (on the Comics Alliance site) is entitled: Japanese Man Petitions for Right to Marry Comic Characters.

Now, I know that the folks over in Japan love their anime, and I can admit that they are some pretty pictures invovled. But that's all they are, pictures.

Of course what makes this the most amusing of all, is that just moments before I read the article in question, I stumbled across the image to the right there on the I'm Not Alone blog.

It couldn't have been a more perfect picture.

Well, I was amused.

Sadly, the other news from the past week isn't quite as amusing. D&D co-creator Dave Arneson has finally lost his long battle with cancer.

To offset, this sad news, I must congratulate SF (or is that SyFy now?) author Tobias Buckwell's wife had twins on Saturday morning.

I'm a firm believeer that children are the ultimate in speculative fiction: unlimited possibilities, that we get to watch come true.

Wowzers!

2009-04-06T06:33:00.001-05:00

That there is my little Jedi. What you don't know, is that he's holding a stick, and at the same time held this conversation with my Beloved Wife:

YubYub: Mommy, I'm gonna fight you. (he's holding a stick)
BelovedWife: Oh really, is that your sword?
YubYub: Nope.
BelovedWife: Ok, is that your light saber?
YubYub: (in an exasperated tone) No mommy, it's just a stick!

You've got to live kids.

Anyways, I'm still on light-time duty due to overwhelming demands regarding the testing of my current software system which needs to be delivered rather soon. As such, I lack the sheer time needed to normally generate one of my rambling posts, so you get this nifty mini-rambling post.

But, good things are happening right now in Geek Culture. It's the start of the Spring Anime Season for one, including a new series about the FullMetal Alchemist--whose first episode I actually did enjoy, even if overfilled with "short" jokes.

Then of course was the recent release of the first novel of the Fate of the Jedi series. I'm about 8/10^ths of the way through that novel, and should have it finished in time for a review on Friday.

And Harper's Island is starting sometime soon. I have a kind of vague hope that this will at least be entertaining television, though I fear I am setting myself up to be let down (and made somewhat bored) as is so often the case when dealing with TV (glances towards Fringe and Dollhouse).

Oh well, that is it for this issue of the rambling Geek.

Dr Haggis' Mad Collection

2009-03-30T05:27:00.001-05:00

Yes, the Flickr user Drhaggis has such an awesome flickr stream that he warrants a title! What am I talking about? Well, it appears way back in 1982, Mad Magazine managed to predict quite a number of prequel plot points. Go here and view it!

Beyond that, I have still been busy, and lack even those nice little list of Geekery which amuse me so.

That said, there is a thread on TheForce.Net's Literature forum which seems instinctively a good fit for this blog: Anakin Solo will return... prepare for the Inevitable (theory based on LOTF Inferno regarding FOTJ).

Now, I've waxed eloquent a number of times in this blog on the ways, whys, and hows that the youngest Solo child should return. While I've not spoken at length at the reason for my belief that he should, it is not necessary a need to have a favored character return from fictional death, so much as it is the fact that by killing him Del Rey broke the monomyth.

The Monomyth is the literary structure upon which all of Star Wars was built. It has been used as a framework for the expansion of the universe through novels since the beginning. Yet Del Rey broke it with Anakin's death in the middle of the NJO.

Basically, they removed the HERO from the fantasy franchise that is Star Wars, and when they attempted to replace him with a lesser character, the only reasonable action to result from that replacement was a rather quick descent to the Dark Side and an ignoble death.

The Monomyth is broken, and in the process they have tainted every other character to the point where the HERO mantle does not fall naturally and fluidly upon their shoulders. Everyone else lacks both a Solo's humanity and a Skywalker's power--the two traits which Anakin Solo held.

But even that is not the most startling bit out of said thread. No, what got me the most was the fact that Vergere's death was probably faked.

First, let's look at a bit of novel excerpts:

"Vergere!" the subaltern cried, his voice ringing high above the sound of the grutchyna bringing down stone.

Tsavong Lah swung at the subaltern. "What of her?" Impatiently. "Isn't she coming?"

"She comes! But she isn't slowing down!"

The A-wing that Vergere stole from Ralroosts fighter bays impacted Ebaq 9's main shaft head traveling at thirty-five thousand kilometers per hour. The starfighter's weapons had been scavenged for use elsewhere, but weapons were scarcely necessary. The impact vaporized the heavy girders and machinery at the shaft head, and the starfighter's power plant and the two huge Novaldex engines turned into a fast-moving ball of plasma that swept the length of Ebaq 9's central shaft and blew out the other side, a brilliant volcanic eruption that blinded any holocams that happened to be turned in that direction.

Then

He turned to her. "You did this, didn't you?"
Vergere's whiskers twitched with distaste. "It was necessary that you be liberated from your choices."

Jacen sighed. "My choices weren't very good, were they?"

"You chose with your heart. And you achieved your object, did you not? Your sister lives." She looked at him solemnly. "And I achieved my object as well. You are free to pursue your destiny."

Truth struck Jacen. He looked at Vergere in shock.

"I just realized," he said. "You're dead, aren't you?"

and Finally,

Jaina's excited presence interrupted. Jacen? He's here?

Yes. Jacen's presence in the meld was calm. With Vergere. She's saved us.

Vergere, thought Luke. His reaction was strong enough to send his complex feelings into the Force-meld, and he felt the others react. Luke quickly dampened his contact with the meld. There were secrets he didn't want all Jedi to
know.

Was Vergere with the Yuuzhan Vong? The complex idea took some time for Luke to formulate. If the answer to his
question was yes, the Yuuzhan Vong knew of the Alpha Red weapon and this whole victory might be pointless.

No. Vergere's astringent personality flowed into the meld from wherever she had been concealing herself, and spoke with extraordinary clarity. I have been hiding among the New Republic forces. I stole a fighter and dived it into the moon to destroy the enemy.

Luke absorbed the implications of this. You gave your life to save the others.

Vergere's response was the answer she had given all along. It was necessary.

Look closely, at no point in the narrative are we shown that she is actually IN said A-Wing fighter. Additionally, if she is dead, then she is showing Force-ghost abilities which a prequel-era "Jedi" should not have. And finally, in light of LotF's revelation that she was a Sith, we also have to give her the Force Phantom ability which allows a Sith to create phantoms which can act/react with the environment--meaning that she could have created something to pilot the A-Wing for her.

In Summary:

We only know that Vergere STOLE the A-Wing. Not that she actually flew it.
She was doing that Force-projection thing Lumiya liked to do AFTER her death in a fiery ball of flames and hard radiation.
She said that she stole it, and drove it into the moon--but that does not necessarily MEAN that she was still IN it to do so
She projected herself into the MELD post-dive-bombing.

Thus, we get that Vergere is still out there alive and well somewhere in GFFA-land. My guess, in the same spot that she transported Anakin Solo too post the Vong War.

Well, that's enough rambling for a Monday Morning.

No Monday Post, but Hey, I got Wednesday!

2009-03-25T05:56:00.000-05:00

Gasp! I've been battling the ancient sword welding-crone all weekend, and thus missed my usual day of posting interesting-to-me things.

Actually, I managed to come down with pink-eye last Thursday. This ailment meant that I was fairly useless computer-wise for the entire weekend. In fact it wasn't until Sunday that I was able to comfortably sit in front of the monitor for more than an hour at a time.

But now, said ailment is just a mere ache, and a bit of watery-ness on the part of me eye.

Anyways, for those not keeping up, BSG and SW:CW have both ended their seasons, with BSG actually ending the series as well. Now that it's over I think it's time to actually ponder the rental of it in order to sit through and watch all of BSG in one long fell swoop.

Why you ask? Why would I do it this way? Because I've been burned by Fox too often as they destroyed their SF shows, and did not feel the urge to put myself in a lurch and hoping for completion of the various plot lines which was the end result of Firefly's and Space: Above and Beyond's aborted seasons.

Alas. In much more interesting news, the latest Star Wars novel was released yesterday. With the colon-spastic title of: Star Wars: Force of the Jedi: Outcast.

In much, much more IMPORTANT news, today is my Beloved Wife's birthday.

Ah, That's Much Better... at least Time-Wise

2009-03-16T06:29:00.010-05:00

Now that's a great big oops. For those of you pondering, yes, I did send this to get published prior to actually finishing writing the post. The Save and Post buttons are awfully close together.

Anyways, without further ado, here is the genre stuff that made it through my memory filters and piqued my interest over the past week:

MTV Movies is reporting that the live-action Star Wars television series is casting. I'm expecting literary canon to once again be tossed aside, as George Lucas rolls out Jar Jar's young, Ewok cousin, Bo-Bo. Even better, it promises to be set in the Dark Times, and not feature a single Jedi or Sith--because that lack of Jedi worked oh, so well, for Star Wars Galaxies.
Coraline.com has posted a pattern for that navy-star-filled sweater (see picture to the right) which the title character of that movie wears. Find it here.
On Wednesday, I found out that I'm jealous of a 14-year-old's birthday cake. The Great White Snark provided us all a look at a Serenity-based cake, and it looked both delicious and awesome.
We also can't forget the Periodic Table of Cartoons. Though, I find it odd that there's no Silverhawks, The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers or Thundercats... talk about lacking the 80's love...
The nominees for a Saturn award (which is like the Oscars, except socially acceptable) are out. I'll list the nominees at the bottom of this post. Though I am left wondering about the sanity of the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films at some of their picks (Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull?!? Did they see the same movie that I did??)
And speaking of movies, IO9 is reporting that there's a remake of Stephen King's IT in the pipes. I for one am trying to figure out how they're going to best Tim Curry's awesome portrayal of Pennywise.

It's a good set of things, and I'm proud of my memory (and my ability to search Google Reader Feeds for the links).

As an aside, a majority of my sites (www.wrighton.org, www.krashpad.com, www.TheExpandedUniverse.com) have gone down due to something at my host. They promised a 99.9% uptime, but it's been days now, and that .1% deviance is starting to become annoying. I fear I may have to move away from GoDaddy.com and find myself a new host.

Anyways, as promised, here are the nominees for the Saturns:

Science Fiction Film
- "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (20th Century Fox)
- "Eagle Eye" (Paramount / DreamWorks)
- "The Incredible Hulk" (Universal / Marvel)
- "Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (Paramount / Lucasfilm)
- "Iron Man" (Paramount / Marvel)
- "Jumper" (20th Century Fox)
Fantasy Film
- "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" (Walt Disney Studios)
- "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount)
- "Hancock" (Sony)
- "The Spiderwick Chronicles" (Paramount)
- "Twilight" (Summit Entertainment)
- "Wanted" (Universal)
Horror Film
- "The Happening" (20th Century Fox)
- "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" (Universal)
- "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" (Universal)
- "Quarantine" (Sony)
- "Splinter" (Magnolia / Magnet)
- "The Strangers" (Rogue / Universal)
Action / Adventure / Thriller Film
- "Changeling" (Universal)
- "The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)
- "Gran Torino" (Warner Bros.)
- "Quantum of Solace" (Sony)
- "Traitor" (Overture)
- "Valkyrie" (MGM / UA)
Actor
- Christian Bale ("The Dark Knight") (Warner Bros.)
- Tom Cruise ("Valkyrie") (MGM / UA)
- Robert Downey, Jr. ("Iron Man") (Paramount / Marvel)
- Harrison Ford ("Indiana Jones & Kingdom of the Crystal Skull") (Paramount / Lucasfilm)
- Brad Pitt ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") (Paramount)
- Will Smith ("Hancock") (Sony)
Actress
- Cate Blanchett ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") (Paramount)
- Maggie Gyllenhaal ("The Dark Knight") (Warner Bros.)
- Angelina Jolie ("Changeling") (Universal)
- Julianne Moore ("Blindness") (Miramax)
- Emily Mortimer ("Transsiberian") (First Look Studios)
- Gwyneth Paltrow ("Iron Man") (Paramount / Marvel)
Supporting Actor
- Jeff Bridges ("Iron Man") (Paramount / Marvel)
- Aaron Eckhart ("The Dark Knight") (Warner Bros.)
- Woody Harrelson ("Transsiberian") (First Look Studios)
- Shia LaBeouf ("Indiana Jones & Kingdom of the Crystal Skull") (Paramount / Lucasfilm)
- Heath Ledger ("The Dark Knight") (Warner Bros.)
- Bill Nighy ("Valkyrie") (MGM / UA)
Supporting Actress
- Joan Allen ("Death Race") (Universal)
- Judi Dench ("Quantum of Solace") (Sony)
- Olga Kurylenko ("Quantum of Solace") (Sony)
- Tilda Swinton ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") (Paramount)
- Charlize Theron ("Hancock") (Sony)
- Carice Van Houten ("Valkyrie") (MGM / UA)
Performance by a Younger Actor
- Freddie Highmore ("The Spiderwick Chronicles") (Paramount)
- Lina Leandersson ("Let the Right One In") (Magnolia / Magnet)
- Dev Patel ("Slumdog Millionaire") (Fox Searchlight)
- Jaden Christopher Smith ("The Day the Earth Stood Still") (20th Century Fox)
- Catinca Untaru ("The Fall") (Roadside Attractions)
- Brandon Walters ("Australia") (20th Century Fox)
Director
- Clint Eastwood ("Changeling") (Universal)
- Jon Favreau ("Iron Man") (Paramount / Marvel)
- David Fincher ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") (Paramount)
- Christopher Nolan ("The Dark Knight") (Warner Bros.)
- Bryan Singer ("Valkyrie") (MGM / UA)
- Steven Spielberg ("Indiana Jones & Kingdom of the Crystal Skull") (Paramount / Lucasfilm)
- Andrew Stanton (Wall-E) (Walt Disney Studios)
Writing
- Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway ("Iron Man") (Paramount / Marvel)
- David Koepp, John Kamps ("Ghost Town") (Paramount / DreamWorks)
- John Ajvide Lindqvist ("Let the Right One In") (Magnolia / Magnet)
- Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan ("The Dark Knight") (Warner Bros.)
- Eric Roth ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") (Paramount)
- J. Michael Straczynski ("Changeling") (Universal)
Network Television Series
- "Fringe" (Fox)
- "Heroes" (NBC)
- "Life On Mars" (ABC)
- "Lost" (ABC)
- "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (Fox)
- "Supernatural" (CW)
Syndicated / Cable Television Series
- "Battlestar Galactica" (Sci Fi)
- "The Closer" (TNT)
- "Dexter" (Showtime)
- "Leverage" (TNT)
- "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (Cartoon Network)
- "True Blood" (HBO)
Presentation on Television
- "24: Redemption" (Fox)
- "The Andromeda Strain" (A & E)
- "Breaking Bad" (AMC)
- "Jericho" (CBS)
- "The Last Templar" (NBC)
- "The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice" (TNT)
Actor in Television
- Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad") (AMC)
- Matthew Fox ("Lost") (ABC)
- Michael C. Hall ("Dexter") (Showtime)
- Timothy Hutton ("Leverage") (TNT)
- Edward James Olmos ("Battlestar Galactica") (Sci Fi)
- Noah Wiley ("The Librarian: The Curse of The Judas Chalice") (TNT)
Actress in Television
- Lena Headey ("Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles")(Fox)
- Jennifer Love Hewitt ("The Ghost Whisperer") (CBS)
- Evangeline Lilly ("Lost") (ABC)
- Mary McDonnell ("Battlestar Galactica") (Sci Fi)
- Anna Paquin ("True Blood") (HBO)
- Kyra Sedgwick ("The Closer") (TNT)
- Anna Torv ("Fringe") (ABC)
Supporting Actor in Television
- Henry Ian Cusick ("Lost") (ABC)
- Thomas Dekker ("Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles")(Fox)
- Michael Emerson ("Lost") (ABC)
- Josh Holloway ("Lost") (ABC)
- Adrian Pasdar ("Heroes") (NBC)
- Milo Ventimiglia ("Heroes") (NBC)
Supporting Actress in Television
- Jennifer Carpenter ("Dexter") (Showtime)
- Summer Glau ("Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles")(Fox)
- Yunjin Kim ("Lost") (ABC)
- Elizabeth Mitchell ("Lost") (ABC)
- Hayden Panettiere ("Heroes") (NBC)
- Katee Sackhoff ("Battlestar Galactica") (Sci Fi)
Guest Starring Role in a Television Series
- Kristen Bell ("Heroes") (NBC)
- Alan Dale ("Lost") (ABC)
- Kevin Durand ("Lost") (ABC)
- Robert Forster ("Heroes") (NBC)
- Jimmy Smits ("Dexter") (Showtime)
- Sonya Walger ("Lost") (ABC)

Top 10 Calvin Snowmen Strips

2009-03-11T18:05:00.000-05:00

This is oh... 3 months or so old... but seeing as we still got snow just a week or two ago (and I just found the link) I figured it would be all right to post.

So, here is a list of the (or at least that blog's authors) Top 10 Calvin & Hobbes' snowman strips.

What I enjoyed most, is the meta-logic that the author of said blog applied to the philosophy and concepts espoused by the images themselves.

Argh!!! It's not fair!

2009-03-09T18:08:00.002-05:00

Now I'm annoyed, and considering complaining to my local theater. Apparently, there was supposed to be geek trailers attached to Watchmen, it's just that the showing I went to lacked them.

For example, this trailer should've been there:

/mutters about Malco Theaters...

Oh my Stars and Garters....

2009-03-09T07:01:00.001-05:00

Apparently I offended the Geekery-deities last week when I bemoaned my decreasing amount of free time. I know this, as they have decided to punish me with even less free time.

A trend which will apparently stretch out into the future as well. Glee.

But it is not all bad, as the Beloved Wife and I did manage to go see Watchmen over the weekend, and thus, my response is: AWESOME!

Now, I know that there are some who are angsting over the fact that it's not a perfect reconstruction of the original material. But, you know what, I don't think that matters. The movie rocked on its own merits.

Though I do feel a bit ripped off. I went to a Geek movie, therefore I expected to get inundated with Geek previews. But what do I get? Up, something that looks like utter eye-candy greatness named "9" and then a movie about Dillinger. And said Dillinger movie lacked space-rays, and outer-space flying things. There wasn't even a dragon or a random individual in skin-tight latex. I mean, this is THE geek movie for the 1^st quarter, they could and should have given us Harry Potter, Star Trek, and probably Dragonball trailers.

But nooooo... I got the buddy-cartoon with poor physics, and tommy guns. Oh, well, the trailer for 9 almost made up for it. And on the off chance you've not seen it, well, here you go:

Here's hoping next week is more profitable... but I do fear I'll have even less time still... alas...

My Idiotic Lifestyle...

2009-03-03T19:51:00.001-06:00

Wow... I mean really, wow. It takes a lot to get through the jaded skin to shock me--after all, I worked retail for years upon years--yet something has.

I'm utterly flummoxed and flabbergasted.

I would say I'm speechless, but I have a tendency to spout off about my utter astonishment as opposed to just staring at the wall, trying to determine if the source of my astonishment is really as grumpy, grouchy and just that mean.

What am I talking about? Why Roger Ebert's review of the movie Fanboys. Now, I never expected high-cinema from this thing (after all, it was a low-budget film that the Wienstien's purchased and added to). And if Ebert (and please note that he has now lost the "Mister" honorific I usually provide) had managed to stick purely in the land of critiquing the movie, I'd probably have agreed with him once I got to see it.

Unfortunately, he just didn't.

Let's look at my two favorite quotes:

Extreme fandom may serve as a security blanket for the socially inept, who use its extreme structure as a substitute for social skills. If you are Luke Skywalker and she is Princess Leia, you already know what to say to each other, which is so much safer than having to ad-lib it. Your fannish obsession is your beard. If you know absolutely all the trivia about your cubbyhole of pop culture, it saves you from having to know anything about anything else. That's why it's excruciatingly boring to talk to such people: They're always asking you questions they know the answer to.

and

But enough about my opinions; what about "Fanboys"? Its primary flaw is that it's not critical. It is a celebration of an idiotic lifestyle, and I don't think it knows it. If you want to get in a car and drive to California, fine. So do I. So did Jack Kerouac. But if your first stop involves a rumble at a "Star Trek" convention in Iowa, dude, beam your ass down to Route 66.

Like I said, I was utterly flummoxed that a nationally, known personality would sit there and blatantly insult large portions of the population.

Here's a secret: I'm an extreme fanboy. I suffer at the desire to purchase EVERYTHING geek related. I want, and I want, and there's just no stopping me when it comes too books. That incessant need for more Geekry is why I ensured that there was at least one good used bookstore close to my house when purchasing it.

Yet, I'm not socially inept. Sure, I may be a tad taciturn and not apt to speak out unduly, but that has nothing to do with my fandom. Heck, I managed to expose enough social skills to get and keep my beloved wife.

But according to Ebert, that's exactly what I am. And why am I socially inept? Because I love a certain segment of pop-culture, to the exclusion of more "acceptable" forms of that self-same pop-culture.

And yes, I know probably 90% of all there is to know about Star Wars. I've dedicated a lot of brain space to the franchise, in addition to big chunks of a few dozen others.

Yet, I also must know thousands, upon thousands of other things. I'm a husband, a father, a Christian, and a software engineer. I have to know basic home, auto, and lawn maintenance. I have to know which stories my sons want read before bed. I have to know how to comfort and how to punish. I have to know enough programming structures, database concepts, as well as just the sheer creative gumption to create software programs. I have to know enough to determine the best way to do my taxes.

I have to know all of these things, and soo many more.

And yes, I know about Star Wars. I know about a good bit of the history of the X-Men. I know a wide swath of the Marvel and DC universes. I know about Star Trek, and Cowboy Bebop. I have hundreds of books, ranging from horror to true crime to my beloved speculative fiction.

That is me, he is talking about.

And probably it is you as well. Even if you've never been to this site, and know nothing about science fiction or anime, or fantasy.

Because, I find discussions on football, baseball, and even NASCAR (much to my Beloved Wife's despair) to be as boring and tenancious as Ebert apparently finds my beloved geekry. And for every parent's basement dwelling SF fanatic out there, there's someone whose entire existence revolves around beer and football.

The difference between me and Ebert is that I'd never have the gall, arrogance, or the outright hate, to tell the people that do love sports that they're wasting their times and their lives. That they're hiding behind their team scores and driver rankings in an effort to not have to deal with people on a personal level.

But hey, it's just Geeks, so where's the harm in insulting them, right?

And for the record, I think it would be an awesome road trip that involved just traveling from one convention to the next for a month or two...

Wowzers, where did last week go?!?!

2009-03-02T06:39:00.010-06:00

I'm serious, here it is, bright and early on a Monday morning, and I'm seriously lacking in the content for what I view as my lovable and adorable readers.

So, let's start with Ground Zero. It's an interesting mashup, dealing with Google Maps, and the potential heat-damage from a wide range of nuclear weapons, and even going up to an asteroid.

Amusing, but scary....

Anyways, I've been having a bit of issues with my PC (caught a virus from somewhere) so I'm a tad behind in my anime viewing. Well, the virus and the fact that I had family in again last weekend (not yesterday, the Sunday before that).

Anyways, as I'm lacking in such things as time this particular week, I've decided to just do one of those huge dumps of SF data that tickled my fancy this past week.

So, without further ado, here's said big bucket of SF/Genre information:

Deathtroopers is now Death Troopers
The comic tie-in for The Old Republic MMO is now up
The Never-Ending Story is the next beloved movie/franchise from my childhood to ~~get violated and left on a street corner, addicted to crack, and willing to turn tricks for its next thrill...~~ be rebooted
Total Recall is also getting a remake, one wonders if they'll just torture us with a bad caricature of Arnold or will we get a movie actually based on a Philip K. Dick story (rather than the poor substitutes we usually receive)
Neurologists have figured out why the Prequels make us hate George Lucas
Cory Doctorow's Little Brother is up for a Nebula Award in the novel category--here's to hope that he wins for it is an awesome book.
Narnia's Dawn Treader has a new writer, so it's apparently back in production... or on the way... or something...
And the TNG cast is reuniting that to Family Guy
Aphrodite IX is the latest comic which is in the running to get a movie--which should be highly interesting, provided that it doesn't fall into the same traps that Ultraviolet and Aeon Flux fell into (two much flash, not enough character)

Ahh... there we go... now that's a healthy dose of content... it's amazing what my mind can spit out when under a deadline....

Digression aside, I feel much better about talking how the anime blog RIUVA, has decided that the anime Asu no Yoichi (my reviews for ep1, ep2, ep3, ep4 and ep5) has value all due to Ayame.

Which of course, I have to heartily concur with.

I mean I married a girl that has her character design--how can I not like it.

Well, I think that's about it for this week, which of course means that we have another seven days worth of SF to look forward too... including the release of Watchmen on Friday--though it may be Saturday, or next week before I get around to seeing it.

Good times...

Movie List

2009-02-28T22:16:00.002-06:00

This is one of those odd movie lists which if you've seen too many of them, then you're some type of lifeless geek.... I think that number is supposed to be around 85...

So, without further delay, here's the list...

(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
(x) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
(x) Blazing Saddles
(x) Airplane
Total:8

(x) The Princess Bride
( ) Anchorman
(x) Napoleon Dynamite
(x) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
(x) Anger Management
(x) 50 First Dates
(x) The Princess Diaries
(x) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total so far: 23

(x) Scream
(x) Scream 2
(x) Scream 3
(x) Scary Movie
(x) Scary Movie 2
(x) Scary Movie 3
(x) Scary Movie 4
(x) American Pie
(x) American Pie 2
(x) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
Total so far: 33

(x) Harry Potter 1
(x) Harry Potter 2
(x) Harry Potter 3
(x) Harry Potter 4
(x) Resident Evil 1
(x) Resident Evil 2
(x) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
(x) The Village
(x) Lilo & Stitch
Total so far: 42

(x) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
(x) Signs
(x) The Grinch
(x) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
(x) Butterfly Effect
(x) 13 Going on 30
(x) I, Robot
(x) Robots
Total so far: 50

( ) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
(x) Universal Soldier
(x) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
(x) Deep Impact
(x) KingPin
(x) Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
( ) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
(x) Joe Dirt
(x) KING KONG
Total so far: 58

( ) A Cinderella Story
( ) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
(x) Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
(x) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
(x) Halloween
(x) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving X-MAS
(x) Flubber
Total so far: 64

( ) Harold and Kumar go to white castle
(x) Practical Magic
(x) Chicago
(x) Ghost Ship
(x) From Hell
(x) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
(x) I Am Sam
(x) The Whole Nine Yards
(x) The Whole ten yards
Total so far:72

( ) The Day After Tomorrow
(x) Child's Play
(x) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
(x) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
(x) Gothika
(x) Nightmare on Elm street
(x) Sixteen Candles
( ) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
(x) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(x) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
Total so far: 80

(x) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Seven
(x) Ocean's Eleven
( ) Ocean's Twelve
(x) Bourne Identity
(x) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
(x) Bedazzled
(x) Predator I
(x) Predator II
(x) The Fog
(x) Ice Age
(x) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
(x) Curious George
Total so far: 91

(x) Independence Day
(x) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
(x) Darkness Falls
(x) Christine
(x) ET
(x) Children of the Corn
(x) My Bosses Daughter
(x) Maid in Manhattan
(x) War of the Worlds
(x) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
Total so far: 101

( ) Best Bet
(x) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(x) She's All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
(x) Mars Attacks
(x) Event Horizon
(x) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
(x) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3
Total so far: 112

(x) X-Men
(x) X-2
(x) X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
(x) Sky High
(x) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
( ) Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Little Mermaid
(x) Freaky Friday
(x) Reign of Fire
(x) The Skulls
(x) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
(x) The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
Total so far: 127

( ) Swimfan
(x) Miracle on 34th street
(x) Old School
(x) The Notebook
(x) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf's Tribe
(x) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
(x) Boogeyman
( ) The 40-year-old Virgin
Total so far: 133

(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total so far: 139

( ) Baseketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
(x) Elf
(x) Highlander
(x) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
Total so Far: 142

( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(x) Monsters Inc.
(x) Titanic
(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
Total so far: 146

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
(x) Hulk
(x) Dawn Of the Dead
(x) Hook
(x) Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
(x) 28 days later
(x) Orgazmo
(x) Phantasm
(x) Waterworld
Total so far: 153

( ) Kill Bill vol 1
( ) Kill Bill vol 2
(x) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
(x) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) the Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
(x) The Last House on the Left
(x) Re-Animator
(x) Army of Darkness
Total so far: 158

(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
(x) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
(x) Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total so far: 166

(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
(x) Evil Dead
(x) Evil Dead 2
( ) Team America: World Police
(x) Red Dragon
(x) Silence of the Lambs
(x) Hannibal
TOTAL: 174

yeah.... that's twice the number necessary to not have a life....

LFL has lost it....

2009-02-23T19:31:00.001-06:00

I love Star Wars, and I often have to fight the compulsion to make random purchases regarding Star Wars collectibles. Even random purchases of the $350 lightsaber hilt replicas (and believe it or not, that was a HARD fight for me to not follow through on).

But there comes a point in a collector's life, when he looks at something, and thinks "now, they're just trying to extort money out of us."

Of course, for me that was while purchasing Galactic Heroes Series III figures (as two-packs) when they'd put new figures in with repacks, as I ranted about here.

But today I have come across something which put that to shame. What is it?

Why, this new set of books, entitled: Star Wars Frames.

Here's the product description (from Amazon's listing):

STAR WARS: FRAMES is an unprecedented, exquisite collection of defining moments from the revolutionary film series as seen through the eyes of its creator. FRAMES pays tribute as never before to the extraordinary visions seen in the epic, intergalactic adventure saga.

From the first view of the Death Star, to a planet of molten lava, or a dizzying asteroid field, the six films of George Lucas’s Star Wars Saga have been filled with astonishing, unforgettable images that changed the way we see cinema.

Each edition of STAR WARS: FRAMES contains 1,416 shots selected by Lucas from more than a million film frames. Contained in six hardcover 11” x 22” volumes, the images are printed from the original film stock in an exceptionally large format that preserves its full resolution and glorious widescreen aspect ratio. Combining cinematography with bookmaking’s highest production values, this remarkable and deeply personal collection is the closest thing to a piece of the original Star Wars film stock. FRAMES offers matchless insight into Lucas’ creative process and boldly illustrates his 30-year vision and passion for the Star Wars saga.

Yes, this is a set of books which contains ~8,500 screenshots. That in and of itself is not that bad of a thing. I mean, there are a number of film-based art books out there, this isn't the first and it won't be the last; and it has a good gimmick as they're Lucas' favorite scenes.

At least that's what you think about until you hit the price tag, which ranges from $4,000 to $5,500.

Yes, you read that right. That is a four digit price tag, for a bunch of screen shots in a wooden box.

In truth, I have never been so amazed at the audacity of LFL as I am right this moment.

I mean, what ever made them think that this was a good idea? Who in their right mind is going to spend four to five grand on a box of picture reprints? It's ludicrous.

Sadly, these days the more aware I am of LFL products, the less that I actually like Star Wars. I feel like I'm being taken advantage of whenever I purchase a LFL product these days. It's getting to the point where I'm thinking that anime will be a better genre-based time/money sink.

At least the 1/8^th figures, like the original "Star Wars Unleashed" figures are pretty to look at....

And they don't cost four grand.

Mondays! Why, oh why....

2009-02-23T04:54:00.003-06:00

Have yet more amusement from the wonderful land of parenthood. As any who may know me, or may have stumbled onto this blog in the past may know, I am the proud father of two geeks-in-training.

This particular fact has been driven home to my beloved wife many, many times by my eldest. A few days ago, my youngest got in on that particular act. What happened was that we were having dinner--taco salad for the record, and my boys were using their Star Wars dinner sets (or at least the cup & bowl portion of the set).

Well, my two year old, starts naming off the characters on the cup, including Ahsoka. Then he notices the cup my wife is using, which is a Princess Leia, RotJ cup that came as a part of a pack with a Slave-Leia figure. He pointed to the image of Jabba on it, and clearly stated "Jabba."

I was all sorts of proud, and my wife was amused. At least, until I thought of pointing out that he now knows more Star Wars characters by sight recognition than he does numbers, letters and/or shapes.

Sadly, I don't have a lot of random thoughts about geek things this week as I've been majorly busy at work.

The worst thing though is the NY Post's article claiming that ABC Family has officially canceled The Middleman.

All I must say to that is BAH!

Time For More Mondays!

2009-02-16T05:55:00.007-06:00

You know, sometimes I wonder why I started these random posts on Mondays. It's not like I like Mondays or anything--in fact quite the opposite. Though I fear it may be because I just didn't want to start work as the first thing on Monday mornings all those years ago.

Regardless, my Little Ewok (more commonly known as the youngest child) has become quite taken with the toy lightsabers which we have in the house (at latest count 5, and that doesn't count my ForceFX saber). This, coupled with his propensity for fighting seems like quite the recipe for a broken something in my house.

Anyways, like all good play-fighters, my youngest has a DEATH SCENE which he enacts whenever he gets struck by a lightsaber, or his lightsaber gets struck by a lightsaber. I guess he just assumes that every lightsaber hit is a natural critical hit.

So, my youngest smacks his saber against mine, and then he staggers backwards until he is in the middle of the living room's throw rug (and it doesn't matter WHICH room he starts in, it's always to the middle of the living room rug). Once there, he grasps at his chest and drops to his knees, before flopping, and rolling onto his back.

One must love kids.

Oh, well, now that the death scene is taken care of, we can carry on with the show. The first thing we've got from the past week is the fact that we can learn Japanese grammar from our good friend Yoda! It's an interesting take on things, and does make me wonder if Yaddle speaks Japanese as well.

Now, I don't normally do that much Star Trek stuff here, as I'm just not that into Star Trek. Yet this particular image has made the rounds on the various blogs--including the Star Wars ones, as it is a Star Trek inspired corset created by a clothes designer on the website Etsy.

See, it's folks like this that are happily destroying the stereotypical image of a Geek as someone who a) lives in their parent's basement, and b) is a virgin living in said basement.

But, me and the Beloved Wife did do a few things this weekend for Valentine's Day. First, we took the boys to Lowe's on Valentine's Day itself for their "Build-n-Grow" clinic. On the way out though, my Beloved revealed just how much of a NASCAR-geek she has become.

There was an issue of Sports Illustrated and on its cover was Jimmie Johnson and his crew chief and it was about NASCAR. An issue which my Beloved felt that Otaku-like yearning that she had to purchase said magazine.

So, as she got into the car after purchasing said magazine, I grinned at her, and just said "Geek."

But it's all good, because we went to see Coraline as well. My wife was less than thrilled by it, but I adored it, and thought it a great movie. It is a "kid's movie" but it's one of those brilliant ones which doesn't pull punches, and isn't afraid to scare them a little.

This was a feature of kids movies in the past, things like The Secret of NIMH or The Dark Crystal, or even Cinderella. Yet, recent movies have shied away from this--as if their producers are scared of the potential backlash which a slightly scary kids movie could possibly engender.

Regardless, it's a movie which I heartily recommend.

Oh well, that's it for this week's does of rambling nonsense. But hey, at least now we have just that much more geek in our lives--even if it's NASCAR geek...

Review: Chrome Shelled Regios episode 1

2009-02-11T22:16:00.003-06:00

My Thoughts
My first thought was: huh? The episode was disjointed, and random--at least on the front of things. My guess is that some of the episode was flash-backs and some weren't.

Above and beyond that, this looks like a promising start to an episode. It reminds me vaguely of Full Metal Alchemist, and I find that despite the less than stellar animation I'm interested in seeing where this leads. So much so, that I went and grabbed the rest of the episodes that I hadn't downloaded yet.

Episode Summary
The episode begins with a bunch of giant insects attacking a domed city. Three fighters, one of whom is in training, attack the thing.

We get a sudden switch, and Layfon Alseif, the main character, leaves his town and rides off to attend the academy in Zerni. Then we flip over to Nina Antalk, the leader of the 17th platoon, and discover that she's loosing one of her members. So of course, she's off to hunt through the incoming students trying to find someone to join her platoon--but isn't having much luck because all the incoming students had already been picked up by the other platoons.

Layfon arrives at the school, and meets a trio of girls, one of whom is taking pictures of him. Then a fight breaks out, and he wanders away, while the girls begin to watch. Somehow, one of the girls gets caught up in the fight, and a portion of a building is about to fall on her, and Layfon recieves a telepathic command to save the girl, which he does, and Nina sees.

This leads to him having to meet the Karian Loss president of the student council. Karian then forces him to enter the military arts section of the school. Nina is chatting with Harley Sutton, one of the other 17th members, and discovers that Layfon is meeting Karian. So, she runs off to request that he be assigned to her platoon.

The next thing we get is Nina and Layfon getting off the bus near the boys dorm. Nina points the way, and then runs off, and Layfon meets Felli Loss. Felli is a member of the 17th, the younger sister of Karian, and the telepath who sent the command that made him save the girl earlier in the episode. They chat for a few moments, before she wanders away, and then Layfon goes to his dorm room and to bed.

Then it's back to the three folks fighting the giant beetle thing. After fighting it for a while (it kept regenerating) they finally defeat it, and it's strongly implied that one of the fighters was Layfon (they had the same eyes), and that all those fight scenes were dream sequences.