Geek Culture
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100 Words On… Grant Imahara
When I learned of Grant Imahara’s death, I cried. I don’t normally cry when a celebrity dies, but this one hit me. We watched Mythbusters and White Rabbit. Grant always seemed like the “every man” to me. He was the one who was willing to show his nerves. Put him in a car that they want to balance on the edge of a cliff, and he was willing to be scared on camera, despite all the safety precautions. Grant always seemed like someone I would want to be friends with. My heart goes out to all his friends and family.
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Book Review: Agency by William Gibson
Dear Mr. Gibson,I love your work. I have been a huge fan ever since someone first handed me a copy of Neuromancer. I even own No Maps for These Territories. And I get that you have always been writing near future, though perhaps with Neuromancer and Johnny Mnemonic we did not realize exactly how near. But now, like Bigend at the end of Zero History, with The Peripheral and especially Agency, we are looking just moments into the future. And I have to tell you, you are killing me. Killing me. When can we expect the next book? And now onto standard book review format. Agency is William Gibson’s latest…
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100 Words On…The Dragon Prince
The Dragon Prince comes from the creators of Avatar (the cartoon, not the movie). If you liked Aang and friends, you will like this. It deals with many of the same issues but focuses on racism and cultural intolerance. It takes a deeper look at the characters’ responsibilities to the world outside of their adventures, and how sometimes those outweigh their own wants. It also takes a very nuanced look at families and family loyalty. It plays a bit with your expectations of characters, and how good intentions or love of family can still lead someone down the “wrong” path.
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100 Words On…The Witcher
I had never played the videogame, so I came in with no preconceived notions of what the Witcher was supposed to be or any understanding of the timeline. Once I realized that we were operating on different timelines (thanks to comments about the war with the elves), it became a game to try to figure out “when” we were for each scene and to watch the timelines slowly converge. Also, I may be in the minority, but I LOVE the bard. I thought he was a perfect foil for Geralt. I hope we get a chance to see him again.
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100 Words On… The Mandalorian
Finished watching The Mandalorian. It was really good. It reminded me of Star Trek (do not kill me), or perhaps the A-Team, meaning that each week was a different adventure not necessarily related to the previous adventures. The meta-plot came into a play a bit more in the final two episodes, but that is pretty standard. But I really like shows where each episode can stand on its own and does not require an in-depth understanding of all that has come before to enjoy it. Also, the world-building in a world we fans all think we know, has been excellent.
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Star Wars vs Star Trek
I have a very clear memory of seeing Return of the Jedi (1983) in the theater when I was a kid. I LOVED the Ewoks. But even more than that, while I have no idea if I saw Empire Strikes Back in the theater or not, I knew going into Jedi that Han was encased in carbonite. I had a book that had me super hyped for the battle on Jabba’s ship. And as for Leia in a gold bikini? I do not think I had ever wanted to be her more. Here she was, made a slave, and she still kicked ass. I also have a very distinct memory…
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Geek Culture for my Dogs
A couple of weeks ago, when I gave the dogs a bath, I realized that Junebug’s collar was broken. The clasp no longer worked. We had to make the collar as big as we could and slip it off over her head. This was not unexpected. The clasp on Larry’s old collar (bought at the same time) had broken just a few months before. At that time, I had made a quick dash to the pet store, saw some collars on clearance, picked out a blue-ish one for him, and we were good to go. I spent less than two minutes on the process. We have since moved. So this…
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Book Review: The Peripheral by William Gibson
Just finished reading the new William Gibson book, The Peripheral. I am honestly never certain how to review the newer Gibson books (generally starting with Pattern Recognition). Gibson is one of those authors who the reader must trust. You would think that given the length of his books compared to say, Stephenson’s books, it would be fairly easy to do so. But you have to trust Stephenson through only half the book (roughly) before everything really starts coming together. You often have to trust Gibson through 90%. And while that’s still fewer pages, it can be really frustrating. At the same time, Gibson places absolute trust in the reader. He…