Book Foo!
Finished: Otherland, Vol 3: Mountain of Black Glass by Tad Williams
Started: The Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

No detailed thoughts since it's part of a series and one part left to go. Still enjoying it though.

Started and Finished: Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow (available online, and read that way)

Thoughts behind the cut, not especially spoilery, though. ( Read more... )

Finished: Ventus, by Karl Schroeder (available free online, but I read it in book form)
Started: 13 Great Stories of Science-Fiction (short story collection, mostly stories from the 50s)

Ventus thoughts behind the cut. Not really spoilery. Short version: Quite liked it, will have to check out more by the author.
( Read more... )

What else? TVwise, Lost was good this week, BSG better than the last few, and Doctor's Daughter had some good moments but overall didn't satisfy. Don't really feel a need to go into it any more than that, though.

Haven't done one for quite a while, so let's do another Wiki Random Battle!

The Rules:
Go to Wikipedia, select Random Article twice, and pit the results against each other:

Round 1: The Cocoi Heron vs Sir Winston Churchill Public School
Results::
( Read more... )

Round 2: Gaston Leroux, Canadian politician vs Richard Beesly, British Rower
Results::
( Read more... )
Round 3: Baeocystin, a psychadelic mushroom component vs ProgressSoft, a software development company
( Read more... )

Lifewise, well, nothing else really new. When is anything? My life unchanges. Yes, my life is so static that it forces 'unchange' to somehow be a real verb.

Edit: Oh, and it's around that time of year for Networks to announce their schedules. A few networks have already announced their slates, and this site I've found has given me a good roundup of them in the past.

Happy Birthday locker_monster!!!!

Happy Birthday darthshoes!!!

Astonishing X-Men #1 ... Animated!

Edit: Oh, and speaking of animated, and X-Men, new 4-minute trailer to Wolverine and the X-Men the new X-Men cartoon series. Looks pretty sweet to me, nice mix of old and new stuff.

This week I got one book:

Young X-Men #2 (okay, but still not sure if I'll stick with it)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

I also picked up at the used bookstore:
Otherland Vol 4: Sea of Silver Light by Tad Williams
and
Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold

PoS is a Nebula-award winner and a Hugo-award winner, and most importantly, it is the last Hugo-award winning novel I have to read before I've read them all (until Labour Day at least, when they select the next winner).

Work was okay, earlier than usual and not so bad. Rained a bit on the long walk, but I could still read through some of it. Course, my net conking out shortly after I got home wasn't very fun, but oh well.

Well, that was lame. There were a few points, but overall I thought it was awfully silly, and not in a good way. And normally I don't post on it, but since the majority of people seemed to enjoy the ep, I felt the need to rant.

(Spoilers)
( Read more... )

Edit: I've decided to attach some quotes from an article about "Why Doctor Who Sucks right Now" that sum up how I feel. No spoilers for future episodes in my segments, though the original essay has a few. I just wanted to quote it here because of a big, MAN I AGREE (not specifically that it sucks, just that it could and should be so much better).
( Read more... )

(Last thing under a WIDW tag was a Doctor Who one that I never officially counted even if it sort of applies, so I'll call this #16)

Time for another edition of What I'd Do With... Yes, it's been quite a while since I've done one of these, mostly because I've been doing much more actual writing in the last year or so. But I still get WIDW type urges, and this time I thought I'd try something different, and to make up for the long absence, something a little more intensive than I usually do.

WIDW a movie about Marvel Comics Thor (actually, sort of WIDW a movie and its sequel)...
The why: ( Read more... )

The what: An actual script for my proposed Thor movie (albeit still in something of a rough form, I got to a point where I just wanted to get it done and didn't throw in my best work).

If that's too long for you, here's the summary-in-words:
( Read more... )

Rough thoughts about a sequel, in which I decided to include a character normally known to be in the X-Universe, and a classic Thor moment, and even a tiny bit of thoughts on the third movie: ( Read more... )

So, that's it. Comments welcome.

You can get to all my WIDWs here.

Well, I should have gotten to it a lot earlier, but I wasn't able to work up to editing as much as I'd like. Bad time of the year motivation-wise. But, I'm back. I sent the rejected story off to another magazine for attempted publishing, and completed editing of another story... alas, my other place that allows online submissions is closed for 2 months (sadly if I managed to get it done yesterday I would have squeaked by, but oh well), so I'll have to look for another that works with online submissions and accepts my word lengths. There are a couple options but I have to look into specifics, and, well, I've only got so much of a motivation-store per day, and I've already used up today's finishing up editing and sending one of them off. So I'll look into the specifics later. Or if things don't turn out so well on the specifics, just wait the two months.

Anyway, I'm still not expecting much, but at least it's an effort.

Happy Birthday 80sfiend!!!

Kind of a dull one. This week I got four books:

Avengers: The Initiative #12 (Dropping the book with this issue)
DC Universe Zero (does nothing to make me interested in DC again, feels like a 50c ad)
New Warriors #11 (my reluctant Pick of the Week, but only okay)
Ultimate X-Men #93 (a waste that at least thankfully ends Kirkman's run)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

So I'll talk about TV instead, in quick bites.
Doctor Who was pretty good, but (spoilers for newest UK episode) ( Read more... )
Battlestar Galactica was meh (not really spoilers) ( Read more... )
The real surprise of the last week or so was LOST, though, which was awesome this week (minor spoilers) ( Read more... ).

Happy Birthday geomant!

Just got back from Greek Easter. It was a slightly smaller gathering than was usual, so I wasn't expecting much, just some lamb potatoes and rice, but no, it was an awesome meal.

I had:
Roast lamb
Macedonian Sausage
Greek Sausage
Zelnic/Spanacopita with cheese/onion and ones with cheese/spinach
Greek Potatoes
Greek Rice
Greek Salad, with Feta (real goat feta, too) and olives
A hamburger
Liver soup (noodle soup with lemon in it and chunks of the lamb's liver)
Hard boiled Egg
Lemon Meringue Pie
Dutch Apple Pie
Ice Cream

And plenty of leftovers. I think that means I ate of 4 different animals today (counting eggs as chicken-in-progress). So delicious.

It was also nice for family stuff, too, been a while since this many of us got together. Well, since Christmas perhaps.

Happy Birthday donna_c_punk and anomilygrace!!

So no long walk either. Although there was some rain on the walk home that was annoying, and some thunder. Of course I had the usual hope that I might be struck by lightning and develop super powers, but it's probably for the best that I didn't, considering what I was carrying at the time I'd probably wind up as Lemon Meringue Man (Le Man Meringue? Lemon Merin-Guy?), and that would just be undignified.

Only other thing to report, they finally made it official: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is coming back. So yay, and yay for Summer getting a series regular role on a show that wasn't cancelled first year! ;) She may be the first Firefly person to accomplish that, (I'm going to assume she's coming back too, because it would be lame if not) or at least a tie with Adam Baldwin on Chuck (I suppose technically he was renewed first though). Brian Austin Green's been made a series regular too, which is pretty nice, and believe me, I'm as surprised that I ever typed those words as anyone else.

So let's start with the TV, shall we? Doctor Who was a better episode this week with a trip to the past, and Donna's doing a good job as the Doctor's Companion. Though I do kind of wish we'd get a story set in a historical time period that _doesn't_ deal with some alien plot to destroy or take over the world, or really deal with aliens at all. I know they're the bread and butter of Who, but I'd like to see one that _just_ dealt with the history, with some of the drama being involved in being swept up in events, maybe being killed in the middle of a war, etc. Hell, I'd kind of like the same in a future story too. BSG also worked out better, with some odd developments on the cylons that were kind of cool, but (minor spoilers ahead) ( Read more... )

In other news about the old Televisual system, Amy Acker has joined the cast of Whedon's Dollhouse, so there's another alum of his old shows. You know when he finds someone he likes he likes using them again. There's still no official word on the renewal of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but TV guide lists it as a 9 on "chances to return out of 1-10" and pointed out that apparently they've been adding to the production staff, so that's good to hear. I just wish they'd make it official. John Shiban's taking up a showrunning position on another series (Wizard's First Rule) which I suspect means he may be leaving Supernatural or having less of an involvement, which I only mention because there are some SN fans on my flist who might be interested. Also Ron Moore and Michael Taylor (of BSG) have a SF pilot greenlit for FOX. Let's hope it works out better than their last series, the Bionic Woman. Here's how it, Virtuality, is described: "(A) sci-fi drama which follows 12 astronauts who are sent on a 10-year journey to find a distant solar system. The explorers pass the time by hooking up to advanced virtual reality modules to explore self-created worlds. But they discover someone has downloaded a computer bug into the system -- and one of them may be the saboteur." You know, I kind of dig the description? It sounds like they're making it a Slower-Than-Light travel SF series, which is good, and as long as the virtual reality element is handled well it could be quite cool. I'm in for it. I know a lot of people don't bother with FOX because they cancel stuff, but if you ask me, that attitude's just dumb and liable to get more stuff cancelled. They want a hit as much as anyone and they as a network seem to _try_ a lot more for SF than many of the other ones, who only attempt it when another network has hit big with one. Anyway, rant over. Moving on.

Writing-wise, I'm on another writing cycle, although I was actually working on a fair bit of free-writing during my off-cycle, so it doesn't seem like much. It's going okay I guess, still a bit slogging and still don't have the whole excitment about writing back yet, and though I still have decent ideas for the SFnal aspects of a story, the more basic plots sometimes elude me. However, last week I did make some good progress on a story (a sequel, or at least set in the same universe but much later, to one I finished and was quite pleased with a while ago). In the process, I wound up wroting my first male/male sexual relationship. ( Read more... )

I think the lack of writing excitement probably signals I haven't entirely pulled out of my winter depression, despite it being spring. I still feel a bit hopeless, which while a realistic outlook doesn't help me get up and moving like I'd want. Helping to mitigate it though is that I've been a bit more into chatting with a new group. No offense to the other people I chat with, but, well, you suck! No, no, you don't suck, it's just there is something sort of ego-stroking about talking to a new group of people who you haven't already told your best jokes to. ;) This is actually the remnants of the old BKV online forum who since migrated to a new one after he closed it, where we also set up a chat room.

Anyway, what else is else? Oh yes, Book Foo.

Finished: Look to Windward, by Iain M. Banks
Started: Ventus, by Karl Shroeder

Look to Windward is another Culture novel, and the last of them I'll be reading for a while (since it's the last I've got right now). It wasn't bad, but not my favorite of them.
( Read more... )

Ventus is a first SF novel by a Toronto writer, looking like it's a nice big idea novel, and it's pretty hefty.

Finished: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling
Started: Otherland, Vol 3: Mountain of Black Glass, by Tad Williams

Thoughts on OotP behind cut. Short version, not bad, but some elements rankle.
( Read more... )

This week I got three books:

Avengers: The Initiative #11 (disappointing ending to the arc)
X-Factor #30 (Didn't really feel like an Arcade story)
X-Men Divided We Stand #1 (Okay, a little repetitive and I'm not fond of some of the developments, but some solid work)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Work was okay, came early and was done quick. Walk was a bit tiring... it was my first big walk with my new shoes, so I had to use slightly different muscles - my old shoes had the heel worn down really really really really really really really really badly, so with the new ones it felt almost like I had suddenly started wearing high heels (or, y'know, what I'd imagine that would be like). And what with it being a warm sunny day the energy of walking didn't serve to warm me up against the cold, just made me more tired.

I was going to write about some book foo and some recent TV stuff, but I'm tired, so screw it, I'll do that tomorrow, and today I'll leave you with one last note:

When I woke up this morning, for the first time ever in my memory, one single eyebrow hair was spectacularly out of place. I mean spectacularly. It was as though it was attempting to flee it's small island nation where it is oppressed, cross the dehairitarized zone, and join the land of the free and wild in north Ahairica. I couldn't put it in place so I had to cut it. Now, you might think that cruel, that it was only striving for the freedom all hair aspires to, to grow long... however, the truth is, even if the hair had made its goal, it would not have fared any better, for a hairocaust was coming.

Today was haircut day. My yearly one. I like it long in the winter for extra warming, short and cool in the summer.

Happy Birthday ciaracat!!

This week I got one book:

Serenity: Better Days #2 (okay, some nice moments, although a few problems)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Work was okay, ran a bit late though, and weather sucked on the way there (but got nicer afterwords). Walk was a bit of a pain, but what else is new?

Nothing dramatic elsewise to report.

First, the regional accent meme. For reference I'm a 30 year old Canadian in Toronto (but who moved around a bit when I was young).

What do you call these things?

A body of water, smaller than a river, contained within relatively narrow banks: Waterslide
The thing you push around the grocery store: Employees
A metal container to carry a meal in: Cage
The thing that you cook bacon and eggs in: Toaster
The piece of furniture that seats three people: 3 Milk Crates
The device on the outside of the house that carries rain off the roof: Gnome
The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening: Tree
Carbonated, sweetened, non-alcoholic beverages: Poison
A flat, round breakfast food served with syrup: Bacon
A long sandwich designed to be a whole meal in itself: Gyro
The piece of clothing worn by men at the beach: Not enough.
Shoes worn for sports: Unimportant.
A flying insect that glows in the dark: Radioactive mutant cockroach
The little insect that curls up into a ball: Radioactive mutant cockroach (in defensive posture)
The children's playground equipment where one kid sits on one side and goes up while the other sits on the other side and goes down: Deathtrap
How you eat pizza: Naked
Where private citizens sell their household goods/stuff in their driveway/front yard: Pathetic
The thing under a house where the furnace and perhaps a rec room are: Lair
The thing that you can get water out of to drink in public places: Sink

Okay, real answers: ( Read more... )

I don't think Wendy's advertising people have logic is a strong suit. I saw a recent ad where they said, "If hamburgers were meant to be frozen, wouldn't cows come from Antarctica?"... uhm, by that same logic, if hamburgers were meant to be cooked, wouldn't cows come from volcanos? Holy crap, I'm never eating at Wendy's again, they're not going to cook my burgers.

Who was on. Plot a little dumb, though the Adiposes are cute and could make a good plushy toy. Liked Donna for the most part but was worried that they were leaning too much towards her lurving the Doctor. Yes, they made that whole speech "I'm not mating with you", but it still struck me as her earlier chats with Grandpa that felt to me more that she thought the Doctor was awesome and wanted to lurve him rather than just wanting to travel and see the universe. But most of the reviews I've read had people who came away with the distinct impression that she _doesn't_ feel that way, so I'm hoping I'm wrong and they're right. Even if I am, it still feels a bit too much like Hero worship, I'd like a little more independence in compaions.

BSG was okay, but no big comments on it.

In surprising nice news, yesterday morning as I was heading out to work, I noticed some paper in my inside jacket pocket where I keep my hat, and decided to clean it out. There, what did I find? An uncashed paycheque from work... from mid December. So yeah, that was a bit of a surprise. Pleasant one, though.

Anything else? Don't think so.

So, I had a Stargate-heavy dream last night. Atlantis, too, which is odd (although some of SG1 made an appearance)
( Read more... )

So, naturally, once I woke up (both while trying to fall asleep again and after I was on my way to work) my mind tried to refine the idea into something that might actually work in the show. Here's what I came up with (which doesn't match the dream very much except in one of the basic ideas).
( Read more... )
In conclusion, I should totally write for Stargate!

In other news, they're producing a movie of the first two Hyperion Books. On the one hand, this is kind of cool, as they're great books and I'd love to see how they translate to the screen. On the other hand, I think there's way too much in the books to fit in a movie. I always thought it would make an awesome miniseries (with the first book being told in one hour installments, one for each 'story' and the connective tissue around them, and then another couple of hour installments for the second book). Is there anything so worrying as a half-fulfilled wish? Ah well, we'll see how it goes.

This week I got one book:

Young X-Men #1 (Pretty predictable all in all)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Work was okay, but I'm a little wiped from the comic walk.

Random short news bites of recent interest to me: Anthony Stewart Head's apparently going to be in a new Merlin series on NBC next year (he's not playing Merlin). There's talk of a Firefly DVD set rerelease with more commentaries. Kristin Bell and Rob Thomas are re-teaming up apparently for the pilot of a new show called Outrageous Fortune. There'll be an Office 'spinoff' next year. Steampunk movie? The director of Victoria: The Golden Age's next project is an adaptation of a novel described as 'set in a Victorian-era alternate universe in which mankind has been exploring the solar system since the time of Isaac Newton, revolves around a brother and sister who team with a band of renegade space pirates to save the world from destruction at the hands of a madman.'

I normally post some kind of April Fools thing, even just in-jokes among subgroups of friends. But I'm skipping it this year because I haven't though of anything. Really. Disbelieve me at your peril.

After a discussion with locker_monster, I was reminded of the old Fox show Vr5, and so I went to download some of it to see how much of it, if any, holds up. And it's surprising how many people I'm familiar with from elsewhere passed in it. I'd already known that Anthony Stewart Head (Giles from Buffy) plays a major role after the first few episodes, but not only is Robert Picardo (Doc from Voyager, Woolsey from Stargate) in the first episode, but so is Adam Baldwin (Firefly's Jane). Not to mention Louise Fletcher (Kai Winn from DS9) playing the mom, and David McCallum (Man From UNCLE among many other roles) as the father, and a couple other more minor appearances.

For those of you who are unaware of the show (which will no doubt be a lot of you, it only aired like 9 episodes on FOX), it's about a woman who discovers that by hooking an active phone line up to her modem while she's wearing her VR equipment, she can sort of enter a 'virtual reality' state which is hyperrealistic, but very dream-like and based on the subconscious of her and the person she's connected to. They typically don't remember any of the encounter, but she does, and sometimes things she does to them can have effects on their subconscious. There's also a complicated conspiracy-esque backstory involving her family, her father and twin sister who (supposedly) died in a car accident when she was young, and her mother who has been catatonic since (but who she can reach in Vr5). Okay, the tech underpinnings of it are laughable (although part of that's intentional as later in the series it's made clear that there's a lot more going on than you find out at first glance). On rewatching... yeah, it's more than a little cheesy at places, but I still enjoyed the first couple eps (haven't got the rest yet), and the way it's filmed and such. It's no Firefly or anything, but might be worth a look if you haven't seen it and are into weird stuff. It's torrentable.

And some book foo...
Finished: Otherland, Vol 2: River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams

No detailed thoughts on this, since it's part of a series. Still generally enjoying it and will finish up.
Started and Finished: Singularity Sky, by Charles Stross
Some thoughts behind cut, concept spoilers but that's about it.
( Read more... )

Started: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling

Also
Finished: Use of Weapons, by Iain M. Banks
Started: Look to Windward, by Iain M. Banks

Liked Use of Weapons, not as much as Excession, but still enjoyable, and the non-linear
storytelling actually worked well - sometimes it annoys me. The major reveal I had sort of guessed early on (but I kept going back and forth on whether I actually believed it was going to happen or was just speculating wildly), but still entertaining. Continuing onto the Culture for one more book, then I'll be taking a break and moving on to something else for a while.

BSG and Doctor Who new this weekend, so there's that to look forward to.

Writingwise, I haven't edited as much as I'd like, but I'm trying to finish up soon. Been a little distracted by a 'silly project' (that is, one which has no hope of ever getting published), which you might oneday see if I finish (it's somewhat WIDWish). Anyway, new writing cycle starts this week.

There, I told you no April Fools pranks. Unless I've cleverly hidden one, I suppose. But I haven't. Promise.

Happy Birthday goddesscomplex!!

This week I got two books:

New Warriors #10 (Meh)
Ultimate X-Men #92 (Meh again)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

I also picked up two books at the used bookstore: Ventus, by Karl Schroeder, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by someone, I can't remember. Probably nobody of note, anyway.

Work was okay. Tired now.

I claimed the whole weekend in the name of me, because I got ripped off this year due to Easter. Still, it was a rather lame weekend, even ignoring the general depression of the day itself.

Saturday did the family thing, though not for me, it was for Easter. And, well, the food wasn't bad, but it was still several hours sitting around mostly with people I don't know very well if at all, along with a few very noisy kids running around all the time.

Otherwise, it was like pretty much any other weekend, except with the added inconvenience of the stores being closed two days. (Though it did have one pleasant side-effect.. had to run to the gas station to get something since the grocery stores weren't open, and I noticed they have flavours of Mr. Noodles they don't have in any of the grocery stores near me... Pork, and Creamy Chicken. Tried Creamy Chicken, it was okay but I still prefer Curry Chicken, but still, cool for finding a new flavour.)

It occurs to me, that since virtually everything you can't classify supposedly tastes like "chicken", then "artificial chicken flavour" in a list of ingredients is spectacularly unhelpful and unspecific. Crocodile meat supposedly tastes like chicken, so theoretically artificial chicken flavour could be from crocodile meat. THINK ABOUT IT. Or not.

Let's see, what else is new?

I've decided that I'm going to boycott the 2008 Olympics. Not because of what's happening in Tibet, I just think the Olympics are really lame.

Finally got around to making this icon. Not quite as good as the other one since I had to pull from various sources, but still relatively pleased with it.

Oh, and I finally got around to watching The Mist, the adaptation of one of my favorite Stephen King short stories (well, novellas). So how was it? Generally, it was an excellent adaptation of the novella, faithful in almost everything but the ending. So we'll talk about the ending. (Major spoilers, of course, for both the book and movie).
( Read more... )
In general the effects were good but some of the monsters looked too obviously CGI, and I might have preferred a bit more use of practical effects vs CGI - like the loading dock sequence, and I would have liked a closer look at the a certain large creature (particularly the novel's description of the bugs hanging off it).

Oh, and the Mist, either the novella or the movie always reminds me of XET now, since I ripped off the idea for the Rutland TP, so I'm all nostalgic again.

Nothing worth getting today, so just went to work and went home. And it was actually a pretty good day. Truck came pretty early and so with no comics, got home early too.

At the grocery store (No Frills) I saw something that struck me as a little odd. Avatar: The Last Airbender Action Figures. Now, it's not odd that they exist, seems a standard enough thing to do. It'd odd that they were at the grocery store. And what's more, they were only $3.00 each (and looked to be fairly standard action figure quality). At that price, I almost considered getting some, but although I like the show I'm not a huge fanboy for it (I haven't even seen the first or newest season), and they didn't seem to have all the main characters in their selection (Just Aang/Momo, Sokka, Spirit-Form Aang, and Fire-Nation-Guy-With-Scarface-Who's-Name-I-Can't-Remember), and unless you can get all of them it's no fun, they'd feel lonely. I just wish they would get Marvel or DC superheroes at that price, I might actually pick some up.

Anyway, temperature was nice, and it would have been great reading weather (not that cold ever really stops me), except for one thing. Just the faintest drizzle. Enough to make me not want to read and get the book wet, but not enough to actually enjoy the rained-on feeling. Since I couldn't read, as is my wont, I thought. Among other things I was thinking of that PoG episode and my recurring desire to see PoG back. I think if I was a bolder person and could speak publicly with any skill, I would actually get a decent webcam and try and produce my own show, soliciting video interviews with various SF/Fantasy/Comics people and putting the clips together in shows. I actually sort of plotted it out in my head a bit, maybe going with, instead of shooting up into space, as the host "uploading" myself into a NANCY like satellite, and use the first episode to talk about the Singularity and Transhumanism/Posthumanism in SF and comics (and then different subsequent episodes talking about all sorts of different topics). Call it Prisoners of Matter? Prisoners of Flesh? I dunno. But in my head it seems like a cool idea. Alas, I'm not bolder.

Oh, and also, I'll be boycotting LJ on Thursday Night/Friday, like others on my list. No posts, comments, or even reading LJ. Here's the details, if interested. But when it's over I'll still read everyone's posts. I suppose I'll take the time off and try to work more on editing rather than constantly refreshing LJ to see if anything new is going on.

Sweet, someone uploaded more Prisoners of Gravity. Okay, only one more ep, but it's a start. Wonder if my praise of the previous ones had something to do with it.

And it's a topic especially near and dear to my heart. Robots and AI! (and it's great because the human host and the AI co-host argue the whole show over which is better Robots or AI)

Links/Interviewee List:

Part One: Gregory Benford (writer of Great Sky River, on Robots vs AI), Nancy Kress, George Zebrowski, Douglas Adams (writer of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on Marvin the Paranoid Android)
Part Two: a young Frank (WHORES!) Miller (on Robocop), Robert J. Sawyer (on AIs in Golden Fleece, whether and how AIs think, biological chauvenism), Donald Kingsbury (author Courtship Rights, on the speed and miniturization ability of AIs), Gregory Benford, George Zebrowski again, Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens (ST book authors, on lack of AIs in Star Trek in general and Data)
Part Three: Brian Fawcett (SF critic), Judith Merrill, Gregory Benford again, Pamela Sargent (Behind the Eyes of the Dreamers), Lewis Shiner

In sadder SF news, Arthur C. Clarke is dead.

It's about a supervillain, and Nathan Fillion's in it (he's a Captain again!).

Really

So, I watched Stargate: Ark of Truth. Thoughts behind cut, some spoilers.
( Read more... )

That wraps up most of what I watch for the next little while, until BSG starts and Doctor Who shortly after that. Lost's still ongoing for a couple more weeks. It's been better than last year, since they've decided on a course to actually finish up the series. Up and down. The Desmond ep was the best so far this year I think.

Watching Serenity on Space now.

Book Foo:
Finished: Excession, by Iain M. Banks
Started: Use of Weapons, by Iain M. Banks

Thoughts on Excession (and a quote from it) behind the cut, non-spoilery. Generally liked it.
( Read more... )

Finished: Reflex, by Steven Gould (sequel to Jumper) (reread)
Still reading: Otherland, Vol 2: River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams

Brief thoughts on Reflex behind the cut. Not really spoilery.
( Read more... )

Haven't been writing very much, have been trying to do some editing, but have been in a real funk lately and haven't felt much like doing _anything_. Oddly enough I've had some decent ideas for writing, just when it comes right down to it I have trouble forcing myself to. Still hoping my depression tapers off before the end of March like it often does. Oh well, keep trying, the only way to go.

So in that last 'ask me to post something about something I don't normally write about' meme, 80sfiend asked me to write about my romantic life. Not something I generally feel comfortably writing about indeed. The meme did say to push me outside of my comfort zone, so I suppose I have to.

Warning. Behind the cut lies the type of self-reflexive self-pitying whining I try not to engage in anymore. My only defense to posting it now is that it _was_ asked for. Still, I recommend not reading it. There's nothing in here worth reading. Nothing here I really would _want_ people to read, all told.

The fact is, there's really not much to speak of. ( Read more... )