Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer is the second book I still had from the library that had some time still to go before it had to be returned (at least that was the case... sure hope I'm right that they're due back on the 1st otherwise I'll owe a couple bucks. I know that's not much, but I'd really rather not throw away dollars for no reason. A penny saved is a penny earned. "What's a penny?" Bah! Get out with this, you stupid kids today). It was recommended to me as an example of great science fiction that also happened to be written by a Canadian, thereby making this "Great Canadian Science Fiction".
I read through it much quicker than expected. Does that mean it's a good book? Well, ah, obviously reading through a book fast doesn't make it "great". Ah, man- I've really given myself a load of terms to unpack here. Wait, no I didn't, just the definition of good and whether it correlates to how fast a book can be read. Also, I said "good" first, then "great".
Anyways, I've talked about this book to a bunch of people because you get to learn a lot of possible facts about neanderthals. Wait, okay, I should get you up to speed on what this book is about: one parallel Earth had neanderthals be the dominant species, another Earth (presumably "our" Earth) had homo sapiens get the top job. When a quantum physicist neanderthal accidentally gets zapped to our Earth, he and his hand wrist A.I. have to acclimate to life on a new strange Earth, all the while his partner back in his home reality has been accused of the guys murder. And yes, I'll spoil it now, the book gets to pull the cliche "and who will be defending the accused?" "I will." aaand cue the supposedly murdered victim.
Okay, so good book? Well, I've likened it to an episode of the Magic School Bus: very informative on the topic of current genetic and anthropological theories concerning neanderthal's circa 2002 (maybe they've made some new discovery that would make everything in this book a giant waste of time, I don't know), but no actual story. Certainly not 400 pages of story. And the print was awful big. Really, this was a 150-200 page novel stretched out with science tid bits and superfluous Canadiana.
And I can't really explain that assertion as much as I'd like because I've run out of time and need to go to work. Maybe next installment I'll keep going. Probably not.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Superman on the Couch by Danny Fingeroth
I didn't end up finishing that collection of short stories by... I'm blanking on the name. I'm pretty sure it isn't Dashiel Hammet. There are really just the two big name American pulp detective writers, all the others you can get away with not knowing their names. That is assuming all necessary knowledge is that which could be useful on that game show with Alex Trebek. It's times like this that I wished I had internet at work, for the sake of spell and fact checking (ah, okay, Jeopardy, thanks coincidental use of jeopardy in a sentence, whew.) . Anyways, that short story collection was due back at the library, as was the OTHER mystery by a more contemporary guy who I REALLY don't remember.
(Remembered that I recorded some info so I could get them back from the library. The short story collection is "The Simple Art of Murder", and the other novel is "Minnesota Strip: A Dan Fortune Novel of Suspense". I neglected to record the authors, but this is fine.)
From there I dove into "Sewer, Gas, and Electric" by Matt Ruff, and it was pretty interesting. A sort of screwball vision of the future. I was only 25 pages in when THAT had to be returned. So there's another one that I have to get back.
That left me with two books that are only just due back on the first of June (I think...), the first of which being "Superman on the Couch" by Danny Fingeroth. It's a look at how and why Superhero's so enrapture our society (if you'd like to suggest that isn't the case, need I reference the recent success of the Avengers movie?). I thought it would be tonally similar to the various Superheroes and Philosophy books; a wide range of authors essays discussing a variety of topics using superheroes as a teaching tool. However, such was not the case.
Very little background information was given to the various topics discussed (Jung is definitely a person that exists, whatever his theories are). There was nothing said that I could, or would desire to, argue with, but it also wasn't particularly Earth-shattering. The book may be better suited to the less experienced fan, or rather, maybe better suited to someone who's read fewer 'academia of comic book' books. And I'm pretty sure I haven't read all that many!
(Remembered that I recorded some info so I could get them back from the library. The short story collection is "The Simple Art of Murder", and the other novel is "Minnesota Strip: A Dan Fortune Novel of Suspense". I neglected to record the authors, but this is fine.)
From there I dove into "Sewer, Gas, and Electric" by Matt Ruff, and it was pretty interesting. A sort of screwball vision of the future. I was only 25 pages in when THAT had to be returned. So there's another one that I have to get back.
That left me with two books that are only just due back on the first of June (I think...), the first of which being "Superman on the Couch" by Danny Fingeroth. It's a look at how and why Superhero's so enrapture our society (if you'd like to suggest that isn't the case, need I reference the recent success of the Avengers movie?). I thought it would be tonally similar to the various Superheroes and Philosophy books; a wide range of authors essays discussing a variety of topics using superheroes as a teaching tool. However, such was not the case.
Very little background information was given to the various topics discussed (Jung is definitely a person that exists, whatever his theories are). There was nothing said that I could, or would desire to, argue with, but it also wasn't particularly Earth-shattering. The book may be better suited to the less experienced fan, or rather, maybe better suited to someone who's read fewer 'academia of comic book' books. And I'm pretty sure I haven't read all that many!
Odds and Ends
I keep a box of disposable gloves at work, just for whenever they run out here and yet I'm still expected to take out the trash. Tonight was just such a night that the building was out of its own gloves and I had to dig into my box.
I opened the lid, and saw all white gloves. My gloves are blue.
I dug down, and there were my gloves, buried under a layer of the gloves from the building. It seems like the other guard wanted to keep some gloves handy, because my blue ones wouldn't fit him (my hands are slim, and even I have trouble putting them on... who ARE these gloves for??)
After my evening with Jen on Monday (I already mentioned that) I left her apartment and needed to get my barings. I wandered along (I think) Davenport until I hit Avenue- now there's a street I know of! It was almost midnight, so quite dark out, and I wasn't sure which was was south (to Bloor). I picked the side that sloped down a bit. I walked along, passing a building, and caught a flash of the moon.
Hold the phone! If the moon is on that side of the sky, then shouldn't THIS way-? So I turned around, walked a ways, and finally found myself on recognizable territory- Bloor street! The point is, I wanted to brag that I navigated by moonlight. I'm practically Marco Columbus, director of the first two Harry Potter movies.
That last sentence contained true information, yessir.
I opened the lid, and saw all white gloves. My gloves are blue.
I dug down, and there were my gloves, buried under a layer of the gloves from the building. It seems like the other guard wanted to keep some gloves handy, because my blue ones wouldn't fit him (my hands are slim, and even I have trouble putting them on... who ARE these gloves for??)
After my evening with Jen on Monday (I already mentioned that) I left her apartment and needed to get my barings. I wandered along (I think) Davenport until I hit Avenue- now there's a street I know of! It was almost midnight, so quite dark out, and I wasn't sure which was was south (to Bloor). I picked the side that sloped down a bit. I walked along, passing a building, and caught a flash of the moon.
Hold the phone! If the moon is on that side of the sky, then shouldn't THIS way-? So I turned around, walked a ways, and finally found myself on recognizable territory- Bloor street! The point is, I wanted to brag that I navigated by moonlight. I'm practically Marco Columbus, director of the first two Harry Potter movies.
That last sentence contained true information, yessir.
Men in Black 3
Went to see the new Men in Black movie. I can't believe I still haven't read the comic it's supposed to be based off of. For that matter, I can't believe I haven't yet read any of the Flaming Carrot (aka, the book that started things off for the "Mystery Men" movie).
The theatre was pretty packed, which only matters in that it meant this cute little boy was sitting beside my brother on his mothers lap. I'll refer to that again later.
As far as time travel movies goes, as far as I can tell, this was actually one of the best for not futzing with its own rules of time travel. Case in point: the Bill and Ted movies, the first one they still have a clock to race against for their history project, wheras in the sequel they could take as long as they wanted to get back into the action. (That said, I have read a particularly long justification for the switch up in Bill and Ted, and it makes sense, but it also isn't something the title duo would have thought of, so I'm pretty sure the authors were stretching on that one.)
But for Men in Black: how to travel back to the present? Stop the events that necessitated going into the past, then SNAPBACK J is in the present. Doing it that way made for a cool little bit of foreshadowing in regards to some tragedy near the end- why hasn't J gone to the future yet? Oh, because the bad guy is still kicking.
They avoided the mind screwy ending of the first two films, I mean the universe as one of many marbles that impossible creatures (from our perspective) are playing with ending from the first one, and the world is contained in the locker of a larger civilizations Times Square or something, which is particularly impossible and turned me against the second movie ending.
That was a very unclear run on sentence. The nature of run on sentences.
Not that Josh Brolin didn't do a good job as Tommy Lee Jones's younger self, but the portrayal has been hyped up as the biggest thing about the movie, something that gets undercut when you see the slight differences between the older and younger 'K'. It should come as no suprise that a man is different when comparing his 30 and 70 year old selves, and it's essential to this story that that is so. That's why it's unfortunate that you may walk into the theatre expecting a straight copy of Jones from Brolin and therefore be disappointed.
Does the character Griff annoy you with his non linear, quantum perspective of reality? Yeah, me too. He just was never lucid enough to be particularly helpful, even though he was so depended on. I'm griping. Speaking of griping, giant neuralizer, but then K has a smaller one? What? Gripe gripe gripe. The giant old timey neuralizer was a good gag though, gotta give 'em that.
Anyways, it was a lot of fun, I definitely recommend it. The 60's have been so big lately. I wonder whether we have to attribute that entirely to Mad Men, or if other things can get credit. As the movie takes pains to remind us, we did in fact land a man on the moon in that decade. Kind of a big deal.
The theatre was pretty packed, which only matters in that it meant this cute little boy was sitting beside my brother on his mothers lap. I'll refer to that again later.
As far as time travel movies goes, as far as I can tell, this was actually one of the best for not futzing with its own rules of time travel. Case in point: the Bill and Ted movies, the first one they still have a clock to race against for their history project, wheras in the sequel they could take as long as they wanted to get back into the action. (That said, I have read a particularly long justification for the switch up in Bill and Ted, and it makes sense, but it also isn't something the title duo would have thought of, so I'm pretty sure the authors were stretching on that one.)
But for Men in Black: how to travel back to the present? Stop the events that necessitated going into the past, then SNAPBACK J is in the present. Doing it that way made for a cool little bit of foreshadowing in regards to some tragedy near the end- why hasn't J gone to the future yet? Oh, because the bad guy is still kicking.
They avoided the mind screwy ending of the first two films, I mean the universe as one of many marbles that impossible creatures (from our perspective) are playing with ending from the first one, and the world is contained in the locker of a larger civilizations Times Square or something, which is particularly impossible and turned me against the second movie ending.
That was a very unclear run on sentence. The nature of run on sentences.
Not that Josh Brolin didn't do a good job as Tommy Lee Jones's younger self, but the portrayal has been hyped up as the biggest thing about the movie, something that gets undercut when you see the slight differences between the older and younger 'K'. It should come as no suprise that a man is different when comparing his 30 and 70 year old selves, and it's essential to this story that that is so. That's why it's unfortunate that you may walk into the theatre expecting a straight copy of Jones from Brolin and therefore be disappointed.
Does the character Griff annoy you with his non linear, quantum perspective of reality? Yeah, me too. He just was never lucid enough to be particularly helpful, even though he was so depended on. I'm griping. Speaking of griping, giant neuralizer, but then K has a smaller one? What? Gripe gripe gripe. The giant old timey neuralizer was a good gag though, gotta give 'em that.
Anyways, it was a lot of fun, I definitely recommend it. The 60's have been so big lately. I wonder whether we have to attribute that entirely to Mad Men, or if other things can get credit. As the movie takes pains to remind us, we did in fact land a man on the moon in that decade. Kind of a big deal.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
A revisiting in chinatown
A week or two ago I was visiting with these two guys I used to work with. I was reminded of the degree to which I keep some people at arms length when the one asked me about what my parents do for their anniversary, don't they go to new restaurants or anything. I hummed and hahed appropriately before switching topics. Ultimately, I don't really want these two to know me better than they already do, that's now our relationship.
Yesterday I had a great time hanging out with someone else whom I used to work with. I haven't seen her in a while, but she's one of my favourites. That said, she was similarly in the dark in certain respects.
I went into our meeting yesterday telling myself that I'd fill her in- because this is someone I wanted to have know me better.
We had dumplings. I've never had dumplings before- I actually ate a ton, because if it's in front of me, it's getting eaten (excepting the weirdly spicy spinach/kale looking thing from two nights ago. That wasn't happening.).
We talked about bikes and books. But I never did bring up that extra information.
It was just a really great time, why ruin it by making things heavy for no reason? I feel like I made the right call.
Yesterday I had a great time hanging out with someone else whom I used to work with. I haven't seen her in a while, but she's one of my favourites. That said, she was similarly in the dark in certain respects.
I went into our meeting yesterday telling myself that I'd fill her in- because this is someone I wanted to have know me better.
We had dumplings. I've never had dumplings before- I actually ate a ton, because if it's in front of me, it's getting eaten (excepting the weirdly spicy spinach/kale looking thing from two nights ago. That wasn't happening.).
We talked about bikes and books. But I never did bring up that extra information.
It was just a really great time, why ruin it by making things heavy for no reason? I feel like I made the right call.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Set the Second
I've got to really hand it to that caterpillar, it made for an enthralling show. It was pounding its way across the pavement like a madman, and I was rooted to the ground waiting to see what would happen when it hit the sewer grate thing. And how do you like that, it charged down into the unknown!
Then it kinda looked like it wanted to come back up, but still, I was impressed with the little guy.
I was crouched there staring at it for far too long, I reckon.
Thursday night I did my second stand up comedy set. I was warned that my second time would be bad- of course that was why I went out of my way to make my first time LIKE my second time: chiefly by not getting a crowd of well wishers to enable bad jokes. As it happened, a friend of mine (besides the host) was there, so this set would have been more like the hypothetical first set in that I had more support. Despite my best efforts, or probably because of them, yes, this set was definitely worse than the first.
I had gone way over time on my first set, so I was determined to plow right through this one. Which would be fine, except I went ahead and forgot the one bit that actually got me laughs during my first set. That was a major faux pas.
I also decided to take my buddies advice and write my stuff down, then taking the notebook up with me. Recording the material was a good move, but referring to my notebook killed my flow and made me way more nervous.
The venue didn't help in that regard. A stageless, sleepy Hot Wings place, it lacked the blinding spot light, which I THOUGHT would be a good thing, but it turns out that just let me see the humourless faces. Ah, there weren't that many- well, there just wasn't much of an audience at all. My set as is invites hecklers- and I got heckled! I didn't expect that! I couldn't hear what the guy said, but apparently it was "You're not funny!"
I've never been called un-funny before.
Well, that guy wasn't really paying attention to the show,he was there for food, so I won't get too broken up about it. Looks like I'll have to try harder!!
I'll probably figure this out eventually. I need to be more carefully enthused.
This guy Nick that performed was amazing. Most everyone had left, or was in the process of leaving as he was getting started, and this was pretty disheartening for the guy, but then he just didn't care what he said and was hilarious, the highlight of the night. There's something to be learned from that, and I think it has to do with not caring about what the audience thinks, though that seems a bit extreme. Then again, if YOU aren't happy, what are the odds you're making ANY audience happy?? Find your crowd I guess.
Then it kinda looked like it wanted to come back up, but still, I was impressed with the little guy.
I was crouched there staring at it for far too long, I reckon.
Thursday night I did my second stand up comedy set. I was warned that my second time would be bad- of course that was why I went out of my way to make my first time LIKE my second time: chiefly by not getting a crowd of well wishers to enable bad jokes. As it happened, a friend of mine (besides the host) was there, so this set would have been more like the hypothetical first set in that I had more support. Despite my best efforts, or probably because of them, yes, this set was definitely worse than the first.
I had gone way over time on my first set, so I was determined to plow right through this one. Which would be fine, except I went ahead and forgot the one bit that actually got me laughs during my first set. That was a major faux pas.
I also decided to take my buddies advice and write my stuff down, then taking the notebook up with me. Recording the material was a good move, but referring to my notebook killed my flow and made me way more nervous.
The venue didn't help in that regard. A stageless, sleepy Hot Wings place, it lacked the blinding spot light, which I THOUGHT would be a good thing, but it turns out that just let me see the humourless faces. Ah, there weren't that many- well, there just wasn't much of an audience at all. My set as is invites hecklers- and I got heckled! I didn't expect that! I couldn't hear what the guy said, but apparently it was "You're not funny!"
I've never been called un-funny before.
Well, that guy wasn't really paying attention to the show,he was there for food, so I won't get too broken up about it. Looks like I'll have to try harder!!
I'll probably figure this out eventually. I need to be more carefully enthused.
This guy Nick that performed was amazing. Most everyone had left, or was in the process of leaving as he was getting started, and this was pretty disheartening for the guy, but then he just didn't care what he said and was hilarious, the highlight of the night. There's something to be learned from that, and I think it has to do with not caring about what the audience thinks, though that seems a bit extreme. Then again, if YOU aren't happy, what are the odds you're making ANY audience happy?? Find your crowd I guess.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
The Dictator in spring
Not only am I behind on my own postings here, but, despite the fact that I only follow like four people, I'm behind on reading OTHER peoples posts.
Went to see the Dictator yesterday with a particular buddy of mine that had a slightly different taste in movies than I do. If not for him I wouldn't have gone to see the Dictator, or American Reunion, OR Harold and Kumar, what, Save Christmas? 3D? Save 3D Christmas?
Something like that.
Interestingly, it looked like he thought THIS was the Sasha Baron Cohen movie that took things too far. Well, I don't know. I saw half of Borat before the library disc punked out on me.
After that I zipped along to this cabaret performance thing at Broadview and Danforth. There were so many people there that I was glad to see and catch up, it's a little surprising to me how much fun I had with them. Not only that, but I met some new really nice people. Maybe I was just in the zone?
However, there were definitely a few people I talked to for too long and ended up sounding awkward with. My friend Amanda who was to sing for the crowd, she was nervous beforehand, and I WANTED to make her feel better, but I was just making her feel worse. Eventually my brain went "you're not turning this around, cut her losses and leave. Stop talking!" So I did. And she was great.
But man, more guilt for the guilt fire.
It was a generally well put together show, but that the raffle took forever to get through (but that happens at a lot of raffles.. it doesn't help that most people don't win anything. Even I didn't!), and that there were multiple issues with the microphones.
Nope, not feed-back problems, which is really the more important problem to avoid I guess, but the host and other non-technically abled people had trouble getting the microphone stand to stay pointing in the direction they wanted. It kept sliding down. Without the microphone stand being defective, I don't get how that could continue to be an issue. Did you figure out the problem? Okay, then it's fixed. That's how that's supposed to go.
It had a "spring" time theme that was nice, all bright, pretty and flowery. I looked at a calender, and we're, I think, two weeks from summer.
So they just got this one in under the wire.
I ended the evening eating a breakfast-for-dinner at 1am at the Lakeview restaurant by myself. I felt pretty dumb and alone, to have spent all that evening with people, but to still end up eating out on my own, surrounded by people that made sure to avoid just that. Well, that's how it goes with me. Always dropping on my sword, pretending like I didn't have a whole other field to drop on.
Why yes, that WAS the worst metaphor ever, thank you for noticing.
Went to see the Dictator yesterday with a particular buddy of mine that had a slightly different taste in movies than I do. If not for him I wouldn't have gone to see the Dictator, or American Reunion, OR Harold and Kumar, what, Save Christmas? 3D? Save 3D Christmas?
Something like that.
Interestingly, it looked like he thought THIS was the Sasha Baron Cohen movie that took things too far. Well, I don't know. I saw half of Borat before the library disc punked out on me.
After that I zipped along to this cabaret performance thing at Broadview and Danforth. There were so many people there that I was glad to see and catch up, it's a little surprising to me how much fun I had with them. Not only that, but I met some new really nice people. Maybe I was just in the zone?
However, there were definitely a few people I talked to for too long and ended up sounding awkward with. My friend Amanda who was to sing for the crowd, she was nervous beforehand, and I WANTED to make her feel better, but I was just making her feel worse. Eventually my brain went "you're not turning this around, cut her losses and leave. Stop talking!" So I did. And she was great.
But man, more guilt for the guilt fire.
It was a generally well put together show, but that the raffle took forever to get through (but that happens at a lot of raffles.. it doesn't help that most people don't win anything. Even I didn't!), and that there were multiple issues with the microphones.
Nope, not feed-back problems, which is really the more important problem to avoid I guess, but the host and other non-technically abled people had trouble getting the microphone stand to stay pointing in the direction they wanted. It kept sliding down. Without the microphone stand being defective, I don't get how that could continue to be an issue. Did you figure out the problem? Okay, then it's fixed. That's how that's supposed to go.
It had a "spring" time theme that was nice, all bright, pretty and flowery. I looked at a calender, and we're, I think, two weeks from summer.
So they just got this one in under the wire.
I ended the evening eating a breakfast-for-dinner at 1am at the Lakeview restaurant by myself. I felt pretty dumb and alone, to have spent all that evening with people, but to still end up eating out on my own, surrounded by people that made sure to avoid just that. Well, that's how it goes with me. Always dropping on my sword, pretending like I didn't have a whole other field to drop on.
Why yes, that WAS the worst metaphor ever, thank you for noticing.
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