We’ve just finished up the wake and Shadow is hungover. One of the things I like about American Gods
is that Mr. Wednesday shows up, says “hey, I’m driving, you’re not going to be good for anything for at least an hour” and then drives. He doesn’recriminate, he doesn’t say “oh, you’re hung over… mmm…”. He just says “come on, we’ve stuff to do” and then hits the road.
There’s stuff you worry about. There’s stuff you don’t worry about. Mr. Wednesday knows the difference.
I also watched All-Star Superman
(I’m usually not a Superman guy but… hey, four bucks, right?) and was surprised that I enjoyed it. Now, it wasn’t *NEARLY* as good as Superman vs. The Elite
(also available for four bucks!) but it was a good story. Here’s the basic idea behind the story: Lex Luthor sets a trap on the sun and Superman, in the process of saving the day, flies right into it. The trap gives Superman “super-cancer”. (Not really a spoiler, this happens in the first few minutes.) As it turns out, Superman has a bucket list… and we see Superman check the boxes off one by one.
And I’m fixin’ to go out to our local bar that’s going to show the Royal Rumble and I’m going to be cheering for CM Punk, all the way.
So… what have you been watching and/or reading?
Mr. Wednesday is pretty cool, all around. That bit with the tree is hard core. His friendship with veracity is a bit casual, but… Well, if you’re still reading American Gods, I won’t spoil it any further.
“The trap gives Superman “super-cancer””
I imagine chemo for Superman involves regular doses of Kryptonite.
Just finished reading Scoundrels, Timothy Zahn’s newest Star Wars novel. Have also been reading some of Iain M. Banks’ Culture stuff.
Watched Safety Not Guaranteed, about a few writers for a magazine who decide to do a story on a guy who claims he can time-travel. It was the only one of Rotten Tomatoes’ top five science fiction films of the year that I hadn’t seen yet. Highly recommend it.
I’ve started my rereading of the Wheel of Time series. I had misgivings about rereading a third time, but Jordan had me hooked again after the first 18 pages of the first book.
Good luck with that whole “books 5-10” thing.
Did you read the new one yet, or is your reread going to culminate with that?
I admit to approaching the middle books with some trepidation…some…well, many…ok, most!…of those storylines just meander on and on with no real purpose and do nothing to advance the story.
I haven’t read any of the Sanderson books yet, so this will be a complete read-through.
Oh, interesting. The first Sanderson book was very good, I thought.
My (least) favorite book is the one that takes place over like one day and mostly features Perrin wandering around looking for Faile.
About halfway through with the first season of Friday Night Lights.
Somebody here warned that they sometimes leave threads dangling; the thing I’ve observed so far is that they wrap things up *too quickly*. Probably the limitations of network television – can’t take the risk on a ‘slow burn’ that, say, HBO is able to do.
Also, over 20 episodes in a season feels weird after having watched so many premium cable and BBC series that normally tell their stories in half that number.
I am pretty impressed with the skill & nuance that the young actors are able to bring to bear, though there has been some wobbly characterization at times.
I’m proceeding a bit slower than you. One other thing that impresses me is the way they can mix really gritty and gripping situations with absolute cheese (like the comebacks Matt Saracen keeps pulling our of thin air) and make it all work.
I finished “Crucible of Gold,” the most recent book of the Temeraire (Napoleonic era with a dragon air force) series. I am still making my way through volume 1 of the collection of Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy newspaper strips. I will soon be starting on Ghostwritten, which I do not know much about, but I am reading on the recommendation of a friend.
I just finished reading Fuzzy Nation, which is John Scalzi’s re-imagining of H. Beam Piper’s classic Little Fuzzy. Not a patch on the original, which is absolutely charming and by far Piper’s best novel.
Piper is often called a libertarian author, which feels a bit odd nowadays considering that his best-known series stars a cop (one who solves cases involving time travel; I mean, he was an SF writer.) And in Little Fuzzy, the military and judicial system are on the side of protecting the fuzzies from the giant corporation that wants to deny them their rights and/or kill them all. Though, once their sapience and rights are established, the corporation accepts that, abides by the law, and ceases to be an antagonist. In Scalzi’s far more cynical version, the corporation is much eviller.
Once nice pro-gun bit from the original. The protagonist is a prospector who lives in the middle of nowhere and defends himself very capably with his weapons. When he kills an armed miscreant, the official verdict is self-defense, but the unofficial one is suicide, because that’s what drawing a gun on him amounts to.
I’ve been watching the first series of Land Girls, which is good, but not so good that I’ll be in a hurry to watch subsequent series. Especially since SEASON TWO of Todd and the Book of Pure Evil arrived in the post yesterday.
Reading 1491. It’s a slog, but a tasty one.
Canada represent!
But, discs in the mail, instead of Netflix streaming? What are you, some kind of …?😉
😀
I like to OWN things. Even if they exist on eventually-to-be-obsolete media formats.
Less philosophically, it would be a pain in the ass to hook the TV in the bedroom up to my laptop, and my laptop screen is tiny, and I mostly like to watch things on TV while I am putting away laundry or other sundry bedroom-based tasks.
I was mostly just looking for a way to link that clip. (I’ve been trying to say the word the way he does – there’s a sort of breathiness to it that I have yet to master).
I have bought multiple copies of S1 now – they are ridonculously cheap – and given them as gifts.
I started in on Civ 5.
Still haven’t got all the patches loaded.
I like the media blitz that the great artists do.
Cool move.
Episode 5 of Downton (coolness comedown factor here, I realize…) was frickin’ bruuutal. Man.
Finshed A Memory of Light, the last book in the Wheel of Time. Incredible book. Back on to regular fantasy. Playing Mechwarrior Tactics on the computer. Also enjoyed the Royal Rumble last night and looking forward to wraslin’ tonight.
Finally caught up on Fringe too…
I liked Memory of Light fine (it’s certainly admirable just to get all that pulled together), but I’m not convinced it really paid off my efforts. I waited a very, very long time for Zbvenvar gb pbzr onpx, and the upshot was… nothing. I’m also totally unconvinced that Frnapuna even needed to exist. Mat, Egwene, and Lan got the book they deserved; I’m less convinced that anyone else did.
I just finished Memory of Light (see above), and Sybil Exposed. Knowing virtually nothing about Sybil, the latter book blew my hat off a few times.
Up next is The Word for World is Forest. I have the novella version, which I found in a Hugo winner collection at a used book store. The library here doesn’t have the novel version and I try not to spend much money on books these days. Does anyone (*cough* Schilling *cough*) know if I’m going to miss anything?
Also, this doesn’t count as watching or reading, but I’ve been playing a lot of Ni No Kuni. That game kind of owns, you guys.
Ni No Kuni will feature prominently in next Saturday’s “Saturday!” post.
I’m still running around in the part of the game that doubles as “tutorial” insofar as I’m still encountering stuff that makes my guide say “you can’t use that yet, but it’s awesome” (e.g., the manhole cover thingies).
If you feel like writing a “this game owns” mini essay…
It’s possible you will find something in your email.
I did not know there were two versions. I’ve only read the novella, which was one of the few works of note in Again, Dangerous Visions. But if you’re really curious, abe.com has a few copies of the novel for < $4.
Specs Specs and More Specs.
apparently png felt the need to include a zlib header inside itself. Why???
Because Windows is so stupid.
… Blaise, you’re talking about green cheese. I’m talking about the moon.
The zlib header is 2 bytes long.
Speaking of deflate, is there any way to even BUY a 286 anymore??
No. But why would you need one? What’s the application?
Running the even brain-deader than usual version of Windows 3.0?
Windows 3.0. The Challenger Disaster of software.
Blaise,
Wasn’t that Windows ME? The Japanese have very amusing mascot picture for that OS.
Aren’t you just the clever Hans? libpng has a zlib dependency. But I’m sure you knew that.
Yes. But I wasn’t talking about the reference codec.
We’re watching Northern Exposure with our kids. We watched it lo these many years ago when it was fresh and new and have missed Cicely, Alaska, and its colorful denizens (why has this show apparently never run in syndication?). So now we’re sharing the experience with our kids, who–being the awesome criiters that they are–were hooked from the start (and get a kick out of recognizing Chris in the Morning on the Walgreens ads). 2nd season arrived in the mail today, so the kids will be eager to crowd on the couch with mom and dad to see the next episode.
I watched the first season, and sort of mildly enjoyed it (way too much bickering between two characters who are obviously going to hook up, not enough of the other characters) until the very last episode, with the Aurora Borealis and Chris’s brother. That was just magical.
Also, is it just me [1], or does Holling remind anyone else of Mickey Mantle and Maurice of Ted Williams?
1. I’m pretty sure it is.