Geek vs Life

Maybe all those “normal” people might not realize it, tomorrow (May 25) marks the date of three important holidays for us:

Universal Day of the Jedi
Geek/Nerd Pride Day

and, of course

Towel Day

The first two, of course, picked the date because of May 25, 1977, the release of the original Star Wars movie.

The latter picked it’s date, because it was 2 weeks after the death of Douglas Adams, author of the wondrous series “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. However, here’s a bit of fun trivia:

Open up your computer’s calculator and set it to View > Scientific. Then set it to Hex. Add together the numerical date of Towel Day (5+25). Then switch it back to Decimal mode. ^-^

Whichever day you’re celebrating, have fun, and don’t forget your towel!

Well, this is my first time writing a movie review, so bear with me. ^-^ (or wait, did I do one for Harry Potter? Don’t remember. It’s still my first for a movie that hasn’t yet been released…)

Anyway, I got a chance to attend the advance screening of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian down at Pacific Place theater last night, and man was it awesome. I do consider myself a fan of the books, although, truthfully, I can only remember a definite reading of three of the seven books in the series (The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Voyage of the Dawn Traeder, and The Magician’s Nephew). I do have some vague memories of watching at least part of the BBC rendition of Prince Caspian, but that far back and in elementary school is too long ago for me to remember clearly.

We met Wil Wheaton at PAX this year. While we were standing in line, all of us wearing our Geek Vs Life shirts (available now from the store, all except the faux Atari shirt that’s part of this story), Jon says to me “We should have brought a shirt for Wil.” “Well, damn. I guess we’ll remember for next year to be more prepared.”

This year’s PAX was our first real foray into on live journalism as it was for the site. When we finally made our way to the front of the line, Mr. Wheaton says “That shirt is AWESOME!” I look down, muttering a curse at myself and our lack of forethought, and can feel Jon’s eyes burning a hole in the side of my head. We talk about gaming for a bit, got a picture and some video, and I promised to send Wil one of our shirts. He was kind and courteous, probably from his years doing the convention circuit, so at the time I couldn’t tell if this was practiced niceness or genuine, but it didn’t matter all that much. He was cool.

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!)

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.

Wanting to read some science fiction? Want something a little different? You should read “The Plot to Save Socrates” by Paul Levinson. It is science fiction, but it’s also historical fiction. It is ostensibly about a woman name Sierra, with her boyfriend Max, trying to locate her mentor, Thomas O’Leery. Thomas has disappeared after revealing to Sierra a new Platonic dialogue. In this particular one, Socrates is arguing with a figure named, Andros. Andros wants Socrates to escape. In order to do so, he suggest cloning and other scientific advancements. Of course, time travel is involved.

This is a wonderful fun novel. Prior knowledge of ancient Grecian life and history may be helpful, but not needed. The novel has twists you don’t expect, and some of the most dimensional characters created. For example, take the would be the villain Heron, and the missing mentor Thomas O’Leery. The only character that wasn’t as believable seemed to be Sierra, but the plot more than makes up up for it.

Robert Jordan died yesterday. He was the author of the “Wheel of Time” series. Robert Jordan is a pen name. His real name is James Rigney Jr. This was announced on his website www.dragonmount.com. The site is down right now because of too many hits right now. I never read his series, but I respect his accomplishments in the Fantasy genre. All condolences to his family, friends, and fans.

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins is a profound book answering a question posed by John Lennon. You know the question. Imagine a world with no religion? (I hear in some covers, the song changed to “Imagine a world with one religion?”) In that scenario there would be no 9/11, crusades, Holocaust, or Taliban. The list goes on and on. No problems in Ireland, Israel, or Indonesia, just to name a few countries.

Dawkins wants the destruction of a supernatural God. The idea of a supreme creator, one who interferes in our daily life is absurd to Dawkins. Dawkins also wants to obliterate the phrase of Christian child or Muslim child. He feels that the concept of religion is that a child wouldn’t truly understand, like a concept of politics or economics. The child is most likely a product of childhood indoctrination. His geological position most likely informs his religious position. The final concept Dawkins wants to instill is Atheist pride.

I was on a rather long road trip recently. One way to pass the time was listening to some Books on Tape, err CD. It was fascinating how different companies attempted to tell the story. Some narrators did different voices for each characters. Some narrators were hired because of their geographical accent. For example: a British author had a British narrator even though the story didn’t take place in Britain. I swear one narrator’s goal was to put the audience to sleep. A very dangerous thing if you are driving a car. On the way back to my hometown, I put on Walter Mosley’s “Devil In a Blue Dress.” This is not a review of of the production values of the audio disc. It was superior. This is a review of story itself, and what a story it is.

Here are some mini reviews of recent trade graphic novels. In some cases I have commented on the whole series. None of these are your standard superheroes exploits, and most deal with adult situations. You can find these works at your local comic shop or the geek’s best friend, the internet.

CONAN: THE HALL OF THE DEAD AND OTHER STORIES

You know, I’m writing this as I’m watching Dateline NBC and their interview with JK Rowling (which is the same interview that was played on the Today show on Thursday and Friday). And I’m getting a crack out of it.

You see, I always have closed captioning turned on on my TV (mainly for when I’m watching music videos, so I get the lyrics). Now, as I type this (7:48 PST), the error has been fixed, but for the entire first part of the interview, whenever the word “book” was said, the closed captions read “boob.”

Needless to say, I’ve been completely amused, thanks to NBC, and I wanted to share my amusement with the rest of the world.

“The Stars My Destination” is a brilliant novel. It is not a story of a brilliant man. The genre is science fiction. It was written in the Nineteen Fifties by a man named Alfred Bester. It may also be one of the influential science fiction novel you haven’t heard of. It is also the most prescient.

This is a revenger story.  A man named Gully Foyle has been left for dead in deep space on a decimated ship, during war time between the planets. A ship comes by and ignores his flares. A plot spoiler: Mr. Foyle survives the deep space. He swears murderous revenge on the cruiser.  Some things you should know about Gulliver Foyle is of that he is of a “lower class.” He doesn’t have any special skills. He doesn’t have any education, in fact he  speaks in a gutteral patois. He is also very primal, and passionate in his emotions.

NOTE: WHILE I WILL ATTEMPT TO BE AS VAGUE AS POSSIBLE TO AVOID SPOILERS, BEAR IN MIND THAT THIS IS A REVIEW, AND THEREFORE IT WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE TO AVOID ALL SPOILERS.

I’ve always been a reader. And I think that what drew me to the Harry Potter series was the same thing that drew me to anime and manga. Obviously, it’s a vastly different subject matter, but the… the defiance of the constraints placed on it’s format (at least by the American culture) are the same. Anime, when it boils down to it, are cartoons. And in American culture, there are only two kinds of cartoons: the Saturday-morning fare for children, or the raunchy, poorly animated “comedy” crap for adults (can you tell I’m not a fan of the latter?). Anime defies this, by creating a niche for that middle group. For the 13-25 year olds, with stories that are neither dumbed down for children, no so full of potty humor and sex jokes that it would be too inappropriate for children. Manga, likewise, is the same. It defies the American idea that comic books are, for the most part, superheroes and their epic tales (interesting as a side-note, some of the more acclaimed works in comics in the US have been non-superhero stories). And Harry Potter goes right in with that. Like anime, Harry Potter tells a story that is neither “too adult” for children, nor “too child-like” for adults. And once it draws you in, it keeps you there.

Don’t worry, no spoilers. But while you wait for my HP7 review (I’m at 407 words right now… so I am working on it… it’s hard to get all my thoughts on the book and the series into words), I thought I’d entertain you with today’s Ask John article from AnimeNation, on the subject of John’s opinion on the possibility of a Harry Potter anime:

Ask John, via AnimeNation