Geek vs Life

The media hot librarian is back! I’ve brought a
pre-Halloween spooky treat. Most geeks will tell you
that ghosts and the after-life are fictitious. In the
same breath they’ll tell you they’re a Jedi. Go
figure. This is the ultimate book for those geeks that
do believe. Spook by Mary Roach, is a funny and
informative.

Spook covers all possibilities for the after-life from
reincarnation to ghosts. It also dives right into the
subjects of mediums and EVP. What makes this book so
interesting is it’s not written by a believer. Quite
the opposite, Mary Roach is interested in finding
proof but not so interested she accepts anything and
everything at face value.

Ms. Roach goes so far as to attend medium school in
England to see what that was like. It’s interesting
to see how that

actually plays out. (You to can be a
medium or Sherlock Holmes, which ever comes first!)

I am sure many of you know that Star Trek is being rebooted. (The process of starting over…you know like a computer.) It is coming out Christmas 2008. It is being directed by J.J. Abrams of “Lost” and “Alias” fame. It is written by by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who have scripted “Alias” and “Lost” shows as well. The team also wrote Mission Impossible III.

The script is showing how the titular three met each other in the Starfleet academy. It also connects to the original Star Trek series with Leonard Nimoy playing Spock. The three of course being James T. Kirk, Spock, and Dr. McCoy. Of course what everyone is interested is who is playing the pop culture icons as younger men. It has now been announced for all three playing the leads. James T. Kirk is played by Chris Pine. (Smoking Aces) Zachary Quinto (Skylar from Heroes) is playing Spock. Karl Urban (”Lord of the Rings: Two Towers” and “Return of the King”) is playing Dr. McCoy.

One of these games will most likely eat Jon’s time, one of these will eat Krash’s if he can get it, and 2 will be fighting to the death to try to wrestle my minuscule amounts of spare time away from the Orange Box. Guess which ones? Oh, and remember, kids, release dates are tentative. Just ask anyone at your local chained video game store.

OCTOBER 15, 2007

Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground (Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, Wii, DS)
Beautiful Katamari (Xbox 360)
The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles (Xbox 360 retail version)
Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis (Wii)
Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day (DS)
Fullmetal Alchemist: Trading Card Game (DS)
Bee Movie Game (DS)
Seven Kingdoms: Conquest (PC)
Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (Wii Virtual Console)
Metal Marines (Wii Virtual Console)
Gate of Thunder (Wii Virtual Console)

Growing up, I’ve had a few heroes. Be it Batman, later Richard Feynman (yes, I’m one of those), Shigero Miyamoto, or Will Wright, I get excited when stuff dealing with them comes up.

The British Academy of Film and Television announced that Will Wright will become one of the BAFTA Fellowship this year at their British Academy Video Game Awards, making him the first member of video game industry to be one of the fellowship. BAFTA is starting to recognize the “massive impact” that video games have made on pop culture, and how they’ve changed motion pictures.

“Will’s immense, creative body of work and his continued contribution to the industry make him a most worthy recipient of the Fellowship,” said Hilary Bevan Jones, chairman of the Academy, “and being such a pioneer, we are thrilled that he will be the first person to receive this honor.”

Today started so easy. Get out of the relaxation chamber, listen to the oddly friendly computer voice over the intercom, throw my coffee cup and the radio into the toilet, walk through a fiery gate ripping a hole in space and time to escape my glass prison, put a box on a giant red button, and enter the elevator right after my fillings are vaporized out of my head by a wall of energy. And now, here I stand staring down a hallway with beams of red light shining across hunting for me, all the while small robotic laser guided egg shaped machine gun turrets are asking me nicely where I’ve gone and if I would please come back out. What exactly did I sign on for, and why am I a girl?

Ok folks, sorry about the length of this one. It’s a really long list. A couple of things of note: Super Smash Brothers has been delayed until January 24th (and, yes, Sonic the Hedgehog is in it. Fanboys delight), Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 out there in November (yes, it’s as funny as it looks), Alvin and the Chipmunks (wait…what the….?), Mario Kart on the Wii is for Spring ‘08 (thankfully, that isn’t the title), November 20th sees Final Fantasy XII come out for the DS (and I’m going to lose Jon for a few days), Dimentium: The Ward (really creepy, especially for a DS game), and…is that Assassin’s Creed down there on the DS in February? Who would have thought?

So, with this in mind, here’s the bloody long list, that doesn’t even contain VC releases:

I was a child of the 1980s and 90s. And, like any child of the 80s and 90s, my video gaming world revolved around two names: Nintendo and Sega. Or, more accurate to the mind of a child, Mario and Sonic.

Ah, those… fond… memories of schoolyard arguments, over who was better than who, and who could beat who. How many now-20-somethings dreamed for the day when they could finally prove, once and for all, for all their friends to see, who was better: Nintendo’s lovable plumber, or Sega’s blue speed demon?

Well, my friends, the wait is finally almost  over. For when Super Smash Bros. Brawl hits Japan in January, and the US… sometime later… You will finally be able to pit these video game icons against each other.

Want more? Like, maybe a video? Head on over to the article on IGN.

It is hard to find funny books anymore. I mean books that make you make you laugh out loud. Maybe you know some authors or books. King Dork comes immediately to mind. It was a book that I would just laugh and laugh. People would stare at me like I was a maniac. (I am, but the humor in the book proves this or disproves this.) Other examples for me would be Douglas Adams, or Chuck Klosterman. The point to this? I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle is a funny book. I mean laughing out loud being stared at by strangers.

It is a coming of age novel. I know insert groans here. To be honest, I think the subject has been killed, but I also know that each generation needs it’s own spin on the genre. Their take of this mostly humiliating Western world experience. Why it is almost written by someone so far beyond their high school years, is beyond me.

Hello geeks. I hope to have some reviews up this week. They cover the books (I love you, Beth Cooper), comics (DMZ and Exterminators), and some board games (Ticket to Ride). Oh yes I hope to put up some music reviews like the new Band of Horses, and Sunset Rubdown. Until then don’t geek out to much.

Last years hot topic issue was net neutrality and how we had to protect it. Battles were fought, petitions were signed but on Thursday September 6th, the following happened:

“The Justice Department this week issued its support for a tiered approach to Internet service, and said that the imposition of net neutrality laws would hinder the continued growth of the Web.”-Chloe Albanesius, PCmag.com (Sept 07)

“The Justice Department today said Internet service providers should be allowed to charge a fee for priority Web traffic.”-Dibya Sarkar, Seattle Times

“The Bush administration believes that government regulators should be “highly skeptical” of net-neutrality regulations and instead rely on competition to protect consumers.”-ZDnet.co.uk

Last year I saw a video that made me more excited about a game than I had been for a very long time. A man, with a very strange gun, shooting holes in reality, jumping through hyperspace, and solving puzzles. This game was Portal, part of the Orange Box from Valve. It, along Team Fortress 2 (already available if you’re on a PC and you’ve given up on most physical retailers), and Half Life 2: Episode 2, will finally be available for fully unlocked download as of 10/10/07 shortly after midnight.

Indeed, a couple of things to keep in mind, if you’re going to be locked away on your computer shivering with anticipation for these juicy games.

1. Everyone and their brother is going to be downloading this. Now, you can preload them to save some time and frustration because the Steam servers are fully packed and thus a download would be impossible at the time. Just be patient.

This is just coming up today. Bungie Development Studios is no longer owned by Microsoft, and is now its own independent company. I’ll be hunting around tomorrow while I’m at the World Cyber Games here in Seattle for more information. I just wanted to get the word out, since this is right on the coat tails of Halo 3’s release.

The Beatles changed music as we know it. When that
quartet of mop headed musicians crossed the pond in in
the 60s a wave of awakening and plain hysteria took
the hearts and minds of many. Thus, the Beatles became
a pop culture sensation becoming ingrained in the
mythos of music as we know it.

Flash forward, 2007. Across the Universe, a
rock-opera in the vein of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Pink Floyd’s The Wall, opens and the soundtrack
hits the market. People rush out to pick up this
instant classic, not just a Beatles movie, but a well
done movie. The downside, what many growing up from
the era of the Beatles, and the generation after, have
taken for granted in the music becomes forgotten.

I must have hit my head funny or had the worst case of deja vu ever. My visor reset as the gravel fell from above, a brief blip as the video uplink established itself once again. The ground below me started shaking as the sky suddenly dimmed.

“Incoming Scarab,” the voice over my intercom announced. I looked up at one of the gargantuan four legged beasts that had caused so much destruction in the past towering over me. Balls of unstable supercharged particles erupted from the mouth of mechanical creature, while a small group of alien warriors fired at us. I looked over at my partner in the battle, raised my plasma cannon, and ran in to join the fury.

I have to admit that in the past, I have really disliked Halo. Perhaps more because the controls seemed off, or the people that generally played it. Yet, this time around, I’ve totally enjoyed myself. I haven’t had this much fun playing with friends since the days of You Don’t Know Jack.