SciFi

As a rule of thumb I tend to avoid SciFi books. Nothing personal, they just don't usually capture my interest. But! There are exceptions:

Star WarsLegacy of The Force: The biggest exception, I've been hooked on the Post-Return of The Jedi books since just after high school. Not all of them, but there were a few good miltary-strategem focused books that detailed the war with the Imperial Remnant that I enjoyed, and there was a twenty-book New Jedi Order story arc that took place about 25 years after the 'last' movie (chronologically) that I worked through. It was fairly epic, they didn't shy away from killing billions of people over the five years it covered, and that includes major characters.

A couple of years later they released a three-book story that wasn't terribly good but did take place ~35 years after the last movie, so it followed up on some of the characters from the NJO storyline. Another year or so later they started putting out a nine-book arc called Legacy of The Force that is currently a little over 40 years after ROTJ and is extremely dark and political.
Much of it is reminding me of 24, with its interrogation, torture and remorseless murder, but what keeps striking me is that some of it would probably be really well received if they changed the fact that it was Star Wars. There's a lot of subtext and existentialism, all against a backdrop of political betrayals and questions of terrorism and the cost of safety vs. freedom, which is incredibly relevant for today's governmental practices, but is again lost because, hey--Wookies.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy: Douglas Adams is amazing. I read these in third grade (sans Mostly Harmless, which had not yet been released) and then again a few years back. I was going to pick up the Radio Scripts that the books spawned from the other day, but held off in lieu of the backlog I'm already working through.

Neil Gaiman: I've read parts of Good Omens and it was excellent, but I fell off and stopped reading it. I've read his children's books--which are worth checking out just for Dave McKean's art--and his slightly older audience (not by much) book Coraline, which I guess they're making into a movie? I really want to check out American Gods and Neverwhere, the former of which he won a good few awards for.

Ender's Game: Really the point of this whole post--I just started it last night, it's very decent so far. I loved when his older brother threatened to murder him and claim it was an accident, then went into a rant about how he was going to make sure it happened in a few years just so their sister could look back on this childish coversation and feel guilty for even suspecting that he was serious all along. That aside, the dialogue is good and enough people have told me to read that I expect it to be pretty damn clever.

Dune: Frank Herbert is also amazing. It took me three attempts to get over the 100-page hump that starts the book off, but it's hard to put down once you get into the swing of it. And the series gets so goddamn epic later on, 4000 years into the future... Craziness. I really just need to finish the fifth book and be done with it, but it's another one I walked away from and I'm not sure how easy it would be to pick back up.

(edit: [sic] this is to be expounded, I've had to break for work work)

Securing Future Properties

This morning I had to drop Kate off at her dorms before heading to work. It's about a twenty-minute drive, and about 100 blocks in one direction. At one point I began coasting down in speed as I approached a red light. The red light turned green right as I was coming to a complete stop, but the car ahead of me hadn't noticed. So, I stopped.

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. Honk.

Seems reasonable enough, no? The person in front of us tossed their hands in the air, in a universal "What's the problem?" gesture, and drove off. They proceeded to stay directly in front of us for the next 25 blocks, and turned before us at the same light we were veering right on. It was about that point in the trip when Kate kind of said "Oh no. I think I know which sister that is." 'Sister?' She pointed out the Rosary hanging from the rearview mirror (I like to call it the Trigun Necklace).

I had honked at a Nun.

Sure enough, as we approached Mt. Mary College the car in front of us turned into the parking lot. Since I was going to be pulling right up to the sidewalk and letting Kate hop out of the car, an open target for the ire of a Nun who would certainly not fail to notice that she was returning to campus in the morning hours--and with an asshole who honks at Nun's, no less--I drove one block up, spun around and came back, hoping that my purposeful overshot of the campus parking lot would withdraw my car from the short-term memory bank.

I'm still not sure if it worked. I hope not, because then I'll have an interesting follow-up story.

*

Last week I had a dream that I was one of four chosen from a crowd to have a drinking competition. It is worth noting that I also saw Beerfest for the first time two weeks ago, which is undoubtedly why I felt subconsciously my Inebriation Preoccupation should be tested. It was simple: There were three of us, each with three drinks of varying sizes. The middle size was Sprecher Amber, and the largest and smallest sizes were both light drinks, such as Mike's Hard Lemonade, which I thought was silly. You drank them. First done, won.

I start chugging the largest first, and quickly notice that the other two guys are not participating. I realize I have jumped the gun and swap my glass out for a full one. They then tell us to start and again I notice that the other two guys are barely sipping away. I look around, confused, hoping I can figure out why. Seeing no reason, I go back to slamming mine down. One of the other guys takes few steps towards me, nudges me and points into the crowd. It seems I was mistaken, and there are actually four of us contending. The fourth person apparently suffers from Cerebral Palsy and is wheelchair-bound. The little guy is trying to keep up, but he can't hold his glass properly and is spilling copious amounts of beer and lemonade on himself. The other two guys are tossing the game for him; They feel bad.

At first, I follow suit. But I almost immediately have a lightning stike of dream-logic brilliance, and I realize exactly what is going on. The kid in the wheelchair is playing for a charity, and if he wins he'll donate the money to CP research. The other two guys don't feel their respective charities are on equal footing, and want to help him. I realize--with utter clarity--that if I win I can match every penny this kid would have received to put towards his NPO-of-choice, and that I will do so, in his name--an incredible act of selflessness that will earn me total adoration (and still net me like Eight Grand in prize money). I am amazing.

So I slam my drinks. It is done. The kid looks devestated and the two other guys look pissed. The group throwing this contest seems a bit baffled, but stumble over and hand me my prize money. The crowd begins to boo and rise from their seats. Spastic Boy has knocked over his drink now because, hey--kid's got Cerebral Palsy, give him a goddamn break--and now he's--is he crying? Oh, what the fuck. Someone hosting the event leans in close and tells me that I'd better get out of there, so I do. Winding down side streets, as I make my away from the mob and the uproar, I realize how wrong my original math was... and that I won't be able to make that proxy donation after all. Huh.

Should I feel bad that this is how I act in my dreams? Or, should I just be grateful that I'm not that bad in actual life? Probably I should just feel bad that I kind of wish I was.

Busywork

I'm actually waiting to leave work so that I can pursue my true passion. Here's a hint: It's the cause and solution to all things.

A. L. L.


But whilst I wait for others to take the floor, here's a top-off of what I'm currently up to:

* How We are Curious!

I started a website to host the music I've recorded, and I ported over my recording equipment. I have not set any of this up yet and try as I might I don't get home as often as I'd like.

* Things We Shout at The Ground (in no particular order)

Stalemated. For now. There's still talk about striking up a small publication. Y'know--for funsies. I would say this has temporarily taken a backseat to other pursuits.

* Team mUtah! ((2.0))

Frisbees! Adam and I are the only post-apocalyptic survivors of the original Team mUtah!, our Ultimate Frisbee team (an ill-fated one, I might add). The original was a hodgepodge group of more newcomers than anything and we quickly took the back of the pack in our League. We did score, like, 10 points once. That was awesome.

Adam and I have joined a Thursday League that starts up April 19th. This means Thursdays will now be Frisbee, followed by Beer and Pizza at The Lodge. Pretty awesome, if you ask me. Which you didn't. Thanks, asshole. Thanks a lot.

* Death By Nerf

Mike and I have started work on a webcomic. I've written a few scripts and guidelines, he's drafted up a layout for the site. We're waiting until we have an arsenal of strips ready to go (Say thirty or so) before we actually put anything up, but we have a domain registered and are actively pursuing this. Maya is looking to contribute, also. In the few strips we have cemented we have appearances by Olmec, Gak, a man with the head of a horse (for a head, not for funsies), and the 4th wall is broken. Pretty sure that all spells "Terrible Webcomic", but what can you do?

We're trying to tiptoe around the fact that "Nerf" is in our title, and we are refraining from referring to it as anything other than a word. It is not prevalent in the comic. We're also realizing that we need to decide on a visual aesthetic for the art and try to come up with alter-ego characters that don't blatantly resemble Penny-Arcade, CtrlAltDel, Applegeeks, etc... characters. And we need to learn some PHP and figure out an update schedule. My guess is June we'll try to have something up. The layout Mike sketched is pretty badass. I dig it.

-more to come-

Escaping work, now.