| The Gathering Storm |
[Nov. 11th, 2009|05:13 pm] |
Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series ran into a serious problem with the death of it's author two years ago. Fortunately, someone was found to carry on the last book (which will actually be 3, making it a 14 book series), the first of which came out a few weeks ago.
I just finished it.
My reaction was that Brandon Sanderson did a good job of imitating Jordan's writing style, which is good. More happened than in a lot of the books, which is good.
I thought it was well-written, the fate of an important minor character is shown (and her actions explained), Rand deals with a couple more Forsaken, more visions come to light, Egwene's battles in the White Tower come to a conclusion and, in general, people get ready for Tarmon Gai'don. My big problem is that a major theme of the story comes to a kind of a fast resolution - it seemed a little forced, to me. And, to be honest, I get a little sick of the Aes Sedai being unable to stop manipulating people. Its kind of annoying. |
|
|
| Web Comics |
[Oct. 23rd, 2009|12:27 am] |
Younger brother got me into webcomics and older brother has helped me along.
I've gotten to the point where I read a bunch of them regularly:
Something Positive
Order of the Stick
Girls with Slingshots
Punch & Pie
Questionable Content
xkcd
and some on occasion
Sluggy Freelance
Dork Tower
Penny and Aggie
GPF
I would be reading Queen of Wands, but it finished some years ago.
I'm wondering: what percentage of webcomics have a non-human but quite anthromoporphized character who is generally played for laughs, often at his pretty much sociopathic tendencies? S*P has a boneless cat, GWS has a talking Scottish/Mexican cactus, QC has a robot, OOTS has a halfling ranger, Sluggy Freelance has a socipathic bunny.
|
|
|
| Movie Reviews |
[Sep. 16th, 2009|08:01 pm] |
I just took a trip to the west coast and, on said trip, saw 3 movies, 2 on the plane.
First was The Proposal, which was a Sandra Bullock romantic comedy where she plays a horrible editor who takes her assistant for granted and has to propose to him to stay in the country cause she's canadian and her visa is running out. The INS guy is suspicious (wonder why) and so they fly off to the middle of nowhere Alaska where the assistant lives for his grandmother's 90th to announce his engagement. You get the "city girl in the country" hilarity, you get the "trying to keep everyone from catching their lie" hilarity, a bit of wildlife stealing cellphones, the obligatory "accidental running into each other naked" scene, and of course, grandma is a bit of a whack-job (betty white keeps getting roles like this and she's good with them - in lake placid, she was absolutely demented), and then the serious stuff - assistant doesnt' get along with dad, who, btw, is rich - most of the businesses in town are their's and they live in a mansion, sandra and assisstant start sharing with each other, the family wants them to marry in the traditional family gown and jewelry. it's all a lesson in lies and love and being a good person.
It was a competant enough movie, I suppose. I wish she'd start taking more serious roles - I think she could be a fabulous actress in really good movies, but she's in stuff like this.
The second plane movie was Last Chance Harvey, which is more of a dramatic comedy with romance - Dustin Hoffman is an aging jingle writer who thinks he's still relevant... his company is less convinced. He's off to London to attend the wedding of his daughter. I dunno - maybe he was an incredible jerk to her or something - she seems to love him and be happy to see him, but the crap she pulls on him (he's in a hotel and her mother and step-father and the entire wedding party is at a really nice hotel, he gets told the rehearsal dinner is white coat and it's not and, incredibly, she asks her STEP FATHER to give her away - she's kind of a bitch, to be honest). The other part of this is Emma Thompson, a woman who works at Heathrow gathering statistics of some sort from passengers. He blows her off when he gets off the plane, but runs into her on his way back, after blowing off the reception to get back to NY for a big sale, only to miss his plane and get fired when he calls in to rearrange things. They spend the afternoon together and then go to the rest of the reception, getting there just in time for him to give the father toast (I'm not sure how this is possible, since he was at heathrow at 1 pm and he got there at 7 pm, but maybe wedding receptions last longer than I think)
The acting was excellent - Hoffman and Thompson are tremendous and nearly pull it off, but the movie premise is just not well done.
I guess that;s what they do with airplane movies -they find ones that aren't horrible (well, I saw one of the mighty ducks movies on a plane once, without sound, and I'm 90% sure I missed nothing), but also aren't anything great, just to make sure no one dislikes them.
The 3rd movie I saw was Inglourious Basterds, and THAT was a good movie.
Like most Tarantino movies, it defies easy description. I will say that the trailers do not really describe the movie, only a part of it. For one thing, they don't even show Christopher Waltz, who is the immoral centerpiece of the movie as the chilling SS Colonel Hans Landa. It's one of the most over-the-top characters I've seen, up there with Captain Jack Sparrow, though not in a funny way. It's a Tarantino movie, so lots of people die and there is a lot of blood. And, like a lot of Tarantino movies, there isn't a particular plot, but rather multiple storylines that come together. I won't try to describe it, but it is funny and violent and tense and you feel bad for characters and sad, and sorry for some of the bad guys. And you never do quite get used to Brad Pitt's accent by the time you get to hear him trying to pass as Italian with it and it all gets ridiculous.
I highly recommend it. It's not Pulp Fiction and I'm not sure it's Reservoir Dogs. It's not Kill Bill, but it may be better than the Kill Bill;s. In any case, it's another fine movie by Quentin.
|
|
|
| Cyteen |
[Aug. 29th, 2009|12:16 am] |
I just read Cyteen, a Hugo winning sci-fi novel by C.J.Cherryh. I've only read one other book by Cherryh, Downbelow Station (which I believe won a hugo, as well), and my reaction to Cyteen is much the same as what I remember my reaction to the other book was... i can't figure out if I like it or not.
It's supposed to be one of the classics of sci fi, and I guess it is. It's one of those books where you aren't really sure what's going on, partly because the character's generally don't know what's going on. There's a long part of it about a child genius trying to make sense of the way that people react to her. There's a lot about trying to figure who is doing what and who is lying.
I guess it was good - I think part of the purpose was to make the reader uncomfortable, and it did that.
I did read it through, though... |
|
|
| Falling Free & A Civil Campaign |
[Aug. 19th, 2009|09:08 pm] |
I picked these two up recently, in an attempt to round out my Vor Books. I have all the books - I need to find a copy of the novella "Winterfair Gifts"
Falling Free
Is in the same universe as the Vor books, but set several hundred years earlier. It's one of her earlier books, written before she sold anything and it's not quite as dense as her later books - but it is still excellent. The general Bujold protagonist is competant, not always completely sure of him/herself and tries very hard to figure out the right thing and to do it. In this one, the lead character is an engineer and he's probably the most sure of himself as any of her protagonists.
It's quite good, as a book, and I think that Quaddies are completely hers (Quaddies are human genetically engineered to live in null gravity - most spectacularly, they have 4 arms and no legs, which causes them problems in gravity...) - at least, I don't remember any beings like them. In some ways, it's also a nod to many early sci-fi books about what makes people human, as the Quaddies are designed, and as such, have no rights.
I recommend it to any sci-fi fan... though it's not
A Civil Campaign
Is by far her funniest Miles book. Set after Komarr, it is the story of Mile's attempt to woo his intended wife. What makes it hard, of course, is that he's trying to do it in secret. From her, as she is officially in mourning. While doing this, Gregor's (the emperor) wedding is approaching and various issues are coming up for the Counts to handle. About half way through, everything comes crashing down on Miles at a dinner party from hell. His line as he tries to introduce her (she is quite upset at this time) to his parents sums it all up perfectly: "Mother, Father, let me introduce - she's getting away!"
And that's just the main line of hilarity - there's the mad scientist writing a summary of his dissertation in sonnet form, a bounty hunter who spends the entire book trying to cut through the barrayan red tape only to fail at the last minute, the emperor intervening in a domestic dispute case, the poor Vorkosigan armsmen, bug butter, a sex change that takes a major character quite by surprise and Ivan... who takes an active role in politics for the 1st time.
Unlike the other books, there are no big battles, no major mysteries to clear up - it's a much lighter book in that way.
I don't know what my favorite Bujold book is - I think it's Curse of Chalion, but that may be because of where I am in life right now. But I do know that I laughed more at this one than any of the others....
|
|
|
| Lemonade capitalism |
[Jul. 19th, 2009|09:07 pm] |
Was out for a walk today and, in my travels, passed "Lemonade, $.50" As I happened to have some money in my pocket and the sun was rather warm, I went to the stand and asked if it was good lemonade, made with real lemons. Apparently, it was - and there were lemons in the pitcher. Well, I said, "I have a dollar and I'd like one". One of the boys took my money, and the girl said "you can have two". While I appreciated her attempt to upsell, I had only the need for one. Then one of the boys asked "do you want your change?" and I thought - "wow - these guys are really mercenary", but said "well, yes - that's the way it works".
Then, as they were getting my change (rather reluctantly, I think), I decided I was being a little mean and said "well, I can't actually drink two, but you all look a little thirsty, so why don't I buy you all one of your product". |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Jul. 19th, 2009|07:54 pm] |
And I can't figure out how much i liked it.
There were a lot of really nicely done scenes - Ginny trying to find Harry when he arrives at the Burrow was well done, Ron as the hapless but effective Gryffindor keeper was good, Harry under the influence of Felix was nice, Dumbledore destroying the Inferi was probably the most spectacular magic in the series so far, Snape making the Unbreakable Vow, the Quidditch scenes. Malfoy's scenes were excellent and Luna was awesome, if underused (not that there's a lot for her in HBP) The acting was better - most of the movies have had one or two scenes where the kids performances seemed a little forced, but not here.
I had a few issues <lj-cut text="Kind of spoilerish">
1) Gambon never did quite get Dumbledore - he's better here than he was in Goblet of Fire, but there were many places for a wry remark where he went for seriousness instead.
2) The big fight scene was moved from the end to the middle and from hogwarts to the burrow... for no purpose I can see - apparently, they wanted to show how the world was in danger, but I thought that was done pretty well early on. I didn't really think it needed more. It did set up Ginny and Harry a little more.
3) The Draco scenes, where he is testing the vanishing cabinet, were really good... but because there was no fight at hogwarts, it seemed like a lot of work for no payoff.
4) The Quidditch scenes were excellent - but all THEY did, really, was set up Ron and Lavendar, and the big payoff on that was Ron saying Hermione in the hospital... and not remembering it the next day.
5) To make room for all these scenes with no real vital plot relevance, they cut out a lot of the memories scenes, so we didn't really get to see a lot of them, and they really didn't have much Snape-Potter interaction. For a movie called Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - the Half-Blood Prince didn't really have a lot to DO in the movie. Part of that, I'm sure, is that it would be tough to do - but they could have done more with it, figuring out who it was. I remember wondering if the prince was Voldemort in the book (he was a half-blood, he was there about that time, blah, blah, blah). But it really wasn't very much.
6) When I saw the tribute to Dumbledore, my first reaction was to yell "Freebird!!!" Fortunately, I didn't.
</lj-cut>
I guess (no spoilers here) my big problem was that it was a movie with a lot of scenes - not a coherent movie. The others all had a goal - save the Stone, win the cup, save Sirius... this didn't have a goal. Par of that is the book is the most open ended of all them... but still.
I guess it was kind of Empire Strikes Back - stuff happened, nothing really resolved...
|
|
|
| Obama and butt-gate |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|10:45 am] |
One of the less pleasant side-effects of listening to the Sox on radio is that the show after the game at night is Michael Savage (the man who can't go to England). Savage is a conservative talk-show guy and it was listening to this that I heard of butt-gate, which is the scandal of Obama checking out the rear of a 17 yr old at the G8 Summit. Here's a link:
http://www.theage.com.au/world/nothing-much-behind-bottomgate-20090711-dgpd.html
As it turns out, of course, he wasn't - this was one still, taken from a video, which you can see here:
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-write-letters_10.html
That's Fox News debunking this, btw. He's not checking her out - he's just turning around.
I think that we have to be very suspicious of a still photo that seems to show something scandalous these days, especially on the internet. There's just no reason not to show the context of a photo - in this case, the 10 seconds before and after such a "compromising" photo. |
|
|
| Mountains can be DANGEROUS |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|03:01 pm] |
This story in the Globe (http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/body_recovered.html) points out that hiking is not something to be taken lightly, even here in the East, with extremely well-marked and used trails, even in the summer.
This guy died on Mt Washington, within 3/4 of the miles from the summit, apparently in early june - and it took a month to find his body. He wasn't like some guys I've seen (I've seen guys starting up the mountain at 2 pm with just a six pack of beer) - he was an experienced hiker.
Granted, Washington has completely unpredictable weather (i've been on the shoulder where it's 50 degrees with horizontal rain and gone over the lip into tuckerman's and it's 80 and sunny), but you have to be careful if you are doing anything that isn't trivial... |
|
|
| Interesting |
[Jun. 22nd, 2009|10:18 pm] |
|
aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. fi yuo cna raed tihs, palce it in yuor siantugre. Olny 55% of plepoe can. |
|
|
| A meme (from reynaud) |
[Jun. 19th, 2009|10:16 pm] |
|
If there is one person or more on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist, and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal. |
|
|
| More Bujold |
[Jun. 1st, 2009|02:14 pm] |
I picked up a couple more Vor books at Pandemonium (which moved from Harvard Sq - the space is now a hemp store) - Brother's in Arms and Mirror Dance.
The series is incredible - 3 of the books have won hugo's and 3 others were nominated but didn't win. Imagine a Dune series where the quality of the first kept up throughout - that's Vor.
Brother's in Arms is not one of the Hugo Award nominated books, which means it's just about as good as the Honor Harrington books, none of which have never been nominated, either. It's very good - exciting, gripping, never really know what is going to happen.
Mirror Dance is a Hugo award winner and its' just tremendous. It has two lines in it which really are excellent:
"All wealth is biological"
"Half of what we call madness is just some poor slob dealing with pain by a strategy that annoys the people around him"
Two very different sentiments, of course - I just thought it was good...
Highly recommend both books, the entire series, anything that Bujold writes. |
|
|
| Curse of Chalion |
[May. 25th, 2009|09:01 pm] |
I've been meaning to pick this up, along with Paladin of Souls, but something about them put me off - not sure what.
I don't know why.
Bujold can WRITE. There is a reason why she keeps winning Hugo's and Nebula's, etc.
I won't write a review of the book - I'll just say that if you like fantasy, get this book. I'm assuming Paladin of Souls is as good or better, since it won both the Hugo and Nebula and Chalice of Souls didn't win either. |
|
|
| The Doomsday Book |
[May. 23rd, 2009|06:37 pm] |
is a sci-fi book from the early 90's, by Connie Willis - it won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. I honestly have no idea how I had never heard of it or, really, her. I guess I stopped reading sci-fi after college or something.
Anyway - I highly recommend it - in short, it's about what happens when a history student at a college in the 21st century travels in time to the 14th century... and pretty much nothing goes right.
Without revealing more of the plot than you want to know, I found that I had no idea if it was going to have a happy ending or not until very near the end. And the way the book was written, it would have worked either way.
I found it remarkable that way.
highly recommend it. |
|
|
| Michael Savage, banned in Britain |
[May. 6th, 2009|12:44 pm] |
For those of you who don't know this guy, he's got a syndicated radio show - he's a conservative. I've listened to more of his shows than I'd like to admit - the radio station that broadcasts Sox games has him on right after and I don't always change the channel, cause I'm busy. I think the guy's views are out in left field, myself.
Anyway - Britain banned him as a "promoter of hate". He's said he's going to sue for slander.
http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2009/05/06/banned_us_shock_jock_says_will_sue_britain/
I'm not honestly sure that he has a legal case for this, but then, I'm not a lawyer. I really like the move by Britain, to be honest. Freedom of speech is often touted as a reason to be allowed to say anything, anywhere, and it's not - it just means that you can't be put in jail for what you say in public places (subject to various exceptions, like yelling "fire" in a theater or threatening to kill the president) - it doesn't mean that you must be allowed in to private places to say anything.
And I have no problem with England banning him.
|
|
|
| The Wheel of Time |
[Apr. 24th, 2009|12:13 am] |
Some many years ago, I picked up a book that looked interesting, called The Eye of the World, by a guy named Robert Jordan. I didn't realize that I was getting sucked into a huge series, perhaps the single longest fantasy series I've ever read (Feist has more books set in and around Midkemia, but those are generally trilogies kind of set with each other. Goodkind's Sword of Truth is 11 books, which is the same as Wheel of Time thus far - but it's not done)
The series has a huge set of characters and can be controversial - for one, a lot of the female characters are really annoying and there isnt' a lot happening in some of the later books - but it is an excellent fantasy series.
Robert Jordan died a couple of years ago, but left notes for the 12th and last book. I've just been poking around on wikipedia and found that the "last book" will be 3 books, released in '09, '10 and '11... nearly a million words in total.
The first will be The Gathering Storm (cause, apparently, the last eleven books haven't really been about anything gathering), the second Shifting Winds and the third Tarmon Gai'don. That it's 3 books makes sense - I had no idea how he was going to clean up all the loose threads in 1 book. |
|
|
| Susan Boyle |
[Apr. 18th, 2009|10:31 pm] |
I wanted to post my reaction to this - not actually the video, which is phenomenal, but to the media coverage of it.
I reacted to this for much the reason I expect most people did - Susan Boyle wasn't like most people you see on these shows - she wasn't an embryonic talent... she's fully formed and she just blew me away.
I keep reading media stories talking about how we are shallow cause we looked at her and didn't think anything would happen and everyone was cynical and I don't really understand why that is. I mean, I would have expected something... but nothing prepared me for just how good she is.
And the song she chose - les mis is a great musical and that particular song is the perfect song for a middle aged woman who maybe has seen her dream go by and is taking this chance to seize it again.
it's not about looks - it's about talent and the human spirit and being the best we can be and about optimism...
We don't have much optimism here in America now. Perhaps we are seeing ourselves as a bit middle-aged, perhaps tarnished some. As a country, we've dreamed a dream and it hasn't been true.
Ok, that last bit is worthy of bad media ;)
But I think that she resonates with us at a deep level because she's good, not because she has suddenly made us realize we are shallow. She is inspirational - she's not a lesson in morality. |
|
|
| Auction day |
[Apr. 11th, 2009|11:11 pm] |
For my roto team. I've been doing roto for 20+ years, in various leagues and with various people. I finished 2nd in my league last year and I think I have a kick-ass team this year - very few holes.
For those who dont' know, 5x5 NL only keeper auction league. The basic rules are straight from original roto - we dont' even have FAAB!!! We do have some somewhat restrictive trading rules. Below is my team:
| Position | Player | Salary | Contract Status | | Catcher | G. Soto | 15 | 2nd yr | | Catcher | Martin | 27 | | | First Base | J. Cantu | 11 | 2nd yr | | Third Base | Wright | 44 | | | Corner Man | Hall | 8 | | | Second Base | K. Johnson | 6 | K-09 * | | Shortstop | H. Ramirez | 15 | K-09 * | | Middle IF | Drew | 21 | | | Outfield | N. Morgan | 2 | 2nd yr | | Outfield | J. Upton | 15 | K-10 | | Outfield | Franceour | 13 | | | Outfield | Gerut | 8 | | | Outfield | Schafer | 10 | | | Utility | Renteria | 5 | | | | | | | | Pitcher | T. Lilly | 11 | LD * | | Pitcher | J. Moyer | 1 | 2nd yr | | Pitcher | P. Maholm | 2 | 2nd yr | | Pitcher | harang | 17 | | | Pitcher | Howry | 1 | | | Pitcher | Hudson | 2 | | | Pitcher | Hoffman | 19 | | | Pitcher | Meredith | 1 | | | Pitcher | M. Capps | 14 | LD * |
All the players with no contract status are ones I got at auction.
The asterisks indicate players in one of the states: salary > 24, salary > 10 and in last year of contract, or any player signed to a long term deal in the last year of their contract. LD means last year. K-09 means long term deal in last year, K-10 means long term deal with 2 years left. I have 6 asterisk players. This is important, because you can only trade 1 asterisk player for another.
My team projects to be very good - top 3 in most categories, which is very good for right after the auction. I'll have to make some trades - in particular, I'll need help with my pitching staff, but that shouldn't be that hard to get.
|
|
|
| The last ER |
[Apr. 2nd, 2009|11:19 pm] |
I watched the 2 hour series finale tonight. I used to watch it alot - I stopped watching it regularly around the time they dropped a helicopter on Rocket Romano - tuned in off and on. I think tonight was the first one I saw with John Stamos (who was pretty good)
Obviously, they had a lot of returness - Benton (with the fist pump from season 1 in the opening credits), Lewis, Corday... and Rachel Greene, which surprised me. She was in the ER for a school tour because she wants to be an ER doc.
The non-character reunion stuff was pretty normal ER - people dying, babies being born, people dying because of babies being born, massive traumas, girl in a coma from alcohol poisoning... all standard stuff, really.
There was a nice little scene, right at the end - lots of ambulances from an industrial explosion, Carter is at the ER with Rachel and he's working...
and, the last line in the show, as carter wheels a gurney in with a burn victim... "Coming, Dr Greene?"... echoing what I believe was the last line of the first episode, where Mark Greene says "coming, Dr Carter?" in a similar situation. |
|
|
| Season Finale of Damages |
[Apr. 1st, 2009|11:37 pm] |
Just saw the season finale of damages.
I had a long recap of what the show was, but hit the wrong button on my browser and lost it, which I hate hate hate...
Anyway - if you haven't watched it, it's a good show - well acted, well written.
I'll say this - I was pretty taken aback at the twists in the last 20 minutes or so - the entire season had been hinting about a wide variety of things happening. What ACTUALLY happens is not at all what you would expect (as one of the characters says right at the end) and, in fact, one of the twists came out of nowhere, with absolutely no hints at all. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
carl_schweppe's journal