Life Bullet Points

And once again I'm thrown through a loop.  Here's a little taste of what I'm doing and dealing with.

-Job is getting really bad.  To the point where I think the EEOC may want to do an investigation.  I don't want to get into details, this is a nerd blog and when I bitch I'll bitch about interesting stuff.  With that being said, I'm working on making my situation better by whatever means logically available.  Unfortunately that can distract me from my writing pursuits.  I'm sorry I've been delaying, but I hope soon my situation will improve, which means your reading material from here will increase.

-Mystic and I are motivating each other through the crazy.  He is still working on his video game, and if you would like to help him go here and donate to an innovative video game project.  Keep up with his blog, he's been working, but having 2 jobs (one you love and one you need), things are just moving slowly.

-Nerd life is excellent!  Mystic and I are trying our best to watch through Deep Space Nine and catch up with Next Generation.  LARP is going great with both characters Ellen (who's survived her first Prince as seneschal and is working with her second) and Rose (my sabbat vampire who now has a pack), and I even brought my nerd mom to a game and she loved the people!  I'm not sure if she'll come again.

-I'm going to wait some time before running another game, but one of my LARP friends is going to run a campaign and I'm excited to try something new.  It's not D&D, it's something ridiculously different and indie and no longer published.  Yes, I shall keep you posted.

-I know I'm late in the game, but I'll soon be getting into The Witcher, which I heard was based on a pretty good book and had some interesting story choices.  I hope to then start The Witcher 2 soon after that.

-The podcast will happen again soon, but I'm also hoping in the summer my brother and I can work on some nerd raps... what?  Why are you looking at me like that?  Not like it hasn't been done before.  I know I have a problem of starting projects and not finishing them, but this is something I want to finish, I think it would be good for me and my brother.

-And speaking of finishing projects, I will be continuing the Titania Chronicle, I'm not sure when I'll have time, or make time to write, but I'm not quitting the story.

Zombie in a Penguin Suit.

It really is that simple.



It gets poignant when you get to the credits. P.S. This is a short film by Chris Russel, who luckily has tapped into my re-burgeoning zombie love.

The Walking Dead, Season 1.

You would think that by now, I would've watched this series already.  I am a fan of zombie genre, and especially the modern incarnations of it.  But it wasn't until a friend of mine was talking about how he was excited for season 2 that I was finally compelled to see season 1.  

Totally.  Worth. Your time.

You don't have to be into zombies to appreciate the themes in the story.  It mainly follows Rick Grimes, in his quest to find peace in this new zombie world.  Throughout the story you not only follow Rick and the group he's surviving with, but there are also little vignettes of other's lives and sacrifices, and it's tears through your heart.

For those of you looking for a general review, I highly suggest it.  I always go on and on about how well written TV is in short supply, and the Walking Dead gives me hope.  Characters that have depth, setting that doesn't feel forced, and dialogue that isn't ridiculous.  If there are cliches, they are hidden very well.  

It's a well produced show, gross enough for a zombie epic without trying to be over the top.  Nothing is done merely for spectacle, even though spectacle is a tool used.  

If you haven't seen it, and you like a good story, watch it.  Consider the zombies as an extra bonus.

SPOILERS AHEAD

For those of you have watched the show... I am seriously saddened that I can't watch season 2.  Season 1  was brilliantly executed, which although started the way many zombie sagas start: Guy waking up in a coma in the hospital, doesn't know all about zombies.  However Rick Grimes is smart enough to survive the first 2 hours to get to home, and then almost gets eaten.

Throughout the series, helpful strangers seem to be the theme.  We first meet a father and son team that teach Rick about the world.  Then Glen introduces Rick to the idea of escape.  There's the "gangsters" that took over the abandoned old home, the group that took in Rick after he screwed up their escape plan, the scientist that lets the group into the facility on a whim.  Kindness is not lost in this world.

Nor are the stresses of regular life.  Siblings squabble.  Spouses argue.  Bigotry infects.  It's all just amplified with the new stresses of having the undead trying to eat your face off.  And there's no therapy session to help you work through it.  The people who end up surviving in this situation are tough not only on the outside, but on the inside too.  Their convictions are keeping them through.

There's also a good mix of characters to "like" and "hate".  There aren't ones specifically designed to feel  one way or another, throughout the 6 episodes you can empathize with them all.  Shane just wants the comfort of a family, and took it from Rick when he was "dead".  With Rick back, his opportunity of having that is now completely gone.  Who's going to be making a family now?  Jim was probably never going to be fully sane anyway with his survivor's guilt on top of his general traumatic experiences.  Darryl flies off the handle, but he probably has the best survival skills out there.  They get on your nerves, but you can never fully hate them.

And now I'm kicking myself for not being able to see season 2.  Season 1 made it sound like there's no hope for an actual cure, or at least a sanctuary, but I'm still hopeful.  The bullets will run out, the cars will stop moving, and I'll still think they have a chance with their bare hands.  That's just me.  And the show helps you have hope too.

So if you're watching Season 2, don't tell me a thing.  I'll hold on to hope until the last minute of the series.

Congrats to Quinto on coming out.

I'm a nerd who appreciates people of all different backgrounds, so when I just read this morning that Zachary Quinto has come out of the closet, I want to say "Hooray!  Congrats!  Here's to knowing what you are and being proud of it!"

But to be honest, my first thought was "Aww!  I'll never make out with Spock."

Yeah, I was disappointed a bit at first.  But let's be honest, not like I would've been able to make out with Quinto in this universe.  I'm sure I'm not the only nerd girl who felt that way.

However, now there are another group of nerd girls who are excited for the new possibility of their fan-fiction fantasies becoming true.  I'm not sure how scared I should be now.

Uh... well congrats anyway Quinto!

3. Bored. Reading.

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HEA 10.29.406

I’m trying to write this but there seems to be a fight next door. I didn’t realize the walls were thin, but Mom always said I was horrible at listening. There is a couple living next door, hetero, and the guy is very upset about something. He’s not speaking loudly but he’s slamming something around. Stomping a little bit. It could be a tantrum, I don’t know. But I didn’t even think about the fact that I lived next to anyone. Back home you have some space and a yard, with a tastefully hidden compost heap so you and your neighbors don’t have to smell like filth. But here everything was pretty isolated until I heard some stuff happening over there. Sounds kind of serious. Maybe not. I don’t know. It’s the most interesting thing that has happened to me today.

Things are horribly boring here. Georgia and I went on another shopping trip, this time to more boutiques on the other side of downtown, a little father away. Not as chic as the place with Hetha, but still lots of shop keepers and workers with ridiculous curl sculptures on top of their heads. So it was trendy.

Georgia wanted to make sure that I had a dress I felt fit me. I got to say, even though she’s helping Mom marry me off, she’s doing it a lot better than Mom did. Georgia is not insisting I’m entirely trendy, she says that at least marry a husband that appreciates your style. That means I’m going to be the exotic beauty with how everyone likes to dress here.

I’ll be introduced to high society on New Year’s Eve, at the annual Entrepreneur Ball. Businessmen hold it so that they can thank government officials, and the rest of the big people. It’s a lot of people with old and new money. And a good number of them are single.

So, Dad, tell Mom I’ll be meeting potential husbands soon. I’m sure she thinks I am going to run off and become a vigilante or something, go to some other colony like Progress Point or some other liberal place with free woman that dance all night and have careers during the day. I’m sure she’d find me and drag me back to civilized society. She doesn’t have to now.

I got another nice dress, but I think I’ll stick to the one I bought before. It’s simple, got colors that look good on me and I don’t need it tailored. And yesterday Georgia and I got jewelery for it. Stellarous. Since it’s not on trend on the planet it’ll enhance the fact that I am an exotic import. Like a coconut or something. I should say a fresh coconut, I don’t think they have anything fresh here.

But other than the shopping I’m bored. I’ve finished three romance novels in a week. I don’t read. Ever. I am kind of surprised that I even thought of it but Georgia can hog the projector for hours either watching vids or bidding on art. I don’t even think she really likes the art I just think she tries to seem cultured.

She’s a little homesick from time to time too. Yesterday she talked about how she missed biting into the apple. They have apple juice and apple treats here but it’s not the same. Fresh fruit has a different smell or texture. I’m sure they have some around here somewhere, how else do they make stuff taste like apples?

I gotta get out of the house. I’ll ask Georgia and Garrison what there is to do tonight. I hope something. Anything. SAVE ME!

VIRGINIA

R.I.P. Steve Jobs

For those of you who haven't heard, Steve Jobs, founder of Apple and technological visionary, died today. He's been fighting cancer for years, so it's not super surprising.

I have to say, as much as I have become less enamored with Macs, without the progress that Jobs had made, the idea of making computers accessible to the general public and marrying the form and functionality, have made computers and other electronics the way of the future.  If electronics were not easy to use, then very few people would use them.

I'm not saying that Jobs was the one who invented easy-to-use gadgets, but he popularized them, which makes them more viable options in the future.

With that said, may I suggest anyone with Apple stock consider selling it, not a mad dash though.  Jobs kept that place afloat, and I'm very wary with what Apple will do next.

Terra Nova fails... kinda.

Real Sci-fi these days is hard to come by, so hearing about Terra Nova gave me a little bit of hope.  I didn't expect it to be hard sci-fi like Star Trek, but I figured it has the potential for some good story telling that makes the view think a little bit.

The premise for the hour and a half long premier is at least somewhat interesting.  Jim and Elizabeth Shannon are trying to raise their children in a world where the environment is shot to hell and there's a quota on children, which of course they've decided to break.  Jim's in jail when the family has been given the opportunity to go to Terra Nova, a settlement 85 million years in the past, accessible due to the fact that it's a split to a separate universe.  They conveniently sneak everyone through to a paradise surrounded by dinosaurs and fresh air.

So I watched the premiere.  It's decent, I guess, but I don't think I'm going to go past that.  Its not the acting.  It's well cast (take a look, they all have decent careers), and I'm definitely loving Stephen Lang as Nathaniel Taylor, the tough leader of Terra Nova who survived in the Jungle 181 days before any other civilization joined him.  Stephen Lang brings some smarts to a character that could easily be brushed aside as a musclehead in the wrong hands.  Also so happy to see Allison Miller back after her great short showing on Kings.

It's not really the setting either.  There's a lot of interesting stuff you can do when you go all they way back 85 million years, where humans have a plentiful jungle and countless resources alongside some hugely dangerous monsters. The way cultural naturally evolves would be interesting to look at too.  There is a lot I can think of that would be great to think about in the show.

But right now it seems like it's kinda full of cliches in the writing.  A lot of the cliches are in the character relationships, and they're not all ones that you would recognize in a heartbeat (thankfully no star-crossed Romeo and Juliet b.s. just yet), but you definitely could sit at the story and think "huh, I've seen that a hundred times before."  You probably have. And it's something that I'm discovering on a lot of new shows, that now certain things that used to be considered unusual are being played out.  Again, it's mostly in the character relationships, but you also feel it in the threads of separate plots that spill out of this first episode.  They just give 5 different ideas of what could be popular, and you can tell they're just waiting to see which ones will increase ratings.

Of course there's little nitpicky things too that you wish weren't glossed over.  The Shannons never really explain why they decided to break the child quota with their aptly named daughter Zoey.  They never show how Jim breaks out of prison even through he was stuck their for 3 years.  There's not a lot of build-up for the glory that Terra Nova is in this not-so distant future.  And part of me is willing to gloss that over, but another part of me is reminded that this is a symptom of lazy writing.

It could just be the pilot, but I honestly don't care enough.  There are smart shows out there like Fringe that I need to catch up on and fulfill my nerd tv needs.  If you want something entertaining, I'm sure Terra Nova can fill that void.  The cast carries the show well and of course parts of it look GORGEOUS.  But it doesn't have the brains I'm looking for in particular.