Posted in Entertainment, Likes, tagged aliens, back to work!, coffee break, creativity, Doodles, entertainment, fun, games, Google, history, Roswell, roswell incident, scifi, space on July 8, 2013| Leave a Comment »
I know, I should be working (and I have been and I will be) but! Google has a fun little Doodle in honor of the 66th anniversary of the Roswell incident, and it’s too much fun not to mention.
Need a break? Play the game and take a moment to feel for the little lost alien. Poor thing! Now back to work:)
Posted in Entertainment, Likes, tagged arts, awesome, books, books in real life, entertainment, fun, google maps, harry potter, j k rowling, literature, magic, sff, Writers, writing, yay on July 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Google Maps Street View now features an up close and personal tour through the Warner Brothers version of Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley. If that’s not fun for a Sunday morning, I don’t know what is. Thanks go out to the magical imagination of J.K. Rowling, and enjoy!
Posted in Entertainment, Likes, tagged awesome, Ben Aaronovitch, books, British TV, entertainment, fun, genre fiction, sff, Tor.com, tv, Writers on June 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant Series Optioned for UK TV Adaptation | Tor.com
Author Ben Aaronovitch’s hugely successful series of urban fantasy/police procedural novels featuring a copper who becomes a trainee wizard with the Met is to become a TV series in the UK.
As someone who likes well-written books and entertaining, thoughtful television, this is good news. We’ll have to see how the final product comes together but in the meantime, if the above description sounds intriguing and you haven’t already found Aaronovitch’s series, I suggest you start with the first book, Rivers of London.
This Tor.com-enabled lunch break is now over; I now return to my regularly scheduled work program!
Posted in Funny, Writing, tagged artists, arts, books, cory doctorow, creativity, david foster wallace, fun, funny, genre fiction, j k rowling, joe hill, literature, ray bradbury, sff, work, Writers, writing, yay on June 22, 2013| 2 Comments »
I was feeling a little blue and I was looking for something on the internet to cheer me up and Warren Ellis has a post on his tumblr pointing to a website, I Write Like, so I thought, oh, hey, why not? Warren got David Foster Wallace; I was thinking, huh, maybe it’ll tell me I write like John Steinbeck! Hell, maybe David Mitchell!!!
Thanks to the above post by Joe Hill I’ve discovered an entertaining website called “I Write Like.” Unlike him, however, my stylistic tendencies seem to be more varied. Depending on the story, I apparently write like Cory Doctorow, J.K. Rowling, Ray Bradbury, and David Foster Wallace. I think the minds behind the site put this fun tool together to raise writers’ confidence levels; who wouldn’t want to be told they write like any one of the people on that list?
I don’t write like Stephen King, though. Joe Hill’s got that all wrapped up.
Posted in Likes, Other, tagged arts, awesome, creativity, entertainment, fun, inspiration, mom, Motivation, OttawaCC, sff, Thoughts, yay on May 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Just finished Ottawa Comiccon and it was a blast! Saw LeVar Burton, missed Billy Dee Williams because they moved his panel up at short notice 😦 but did get to see Jewel Staite, hear Summer Glau (lost passport = sad pandas but the apology video and panel call-in were nice touches), Nathan Fillion, and Wil Wheaton, all of whom were terrific.
Posted in Likes, Other, tagged arts, awesome, creativity, entertainment, firefly, fun, genre fiction, inspiration, ottawa comiccon, OttawaCC, sff, star trek, star wars, yay on May 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »
What’s happening? Ottawa Comiccon, that’s what’s happening!
In a few short hours my weekend will start and I’ll be off to bask in the glories of my fellow geeks. Just skimming the headlines, tonight it’s Billy Dee Williams and LeVar Burton, tomorrow it’s Jewel Staite and Summer Glau, then Sunday it’s Wil Wheaton and Captain Tight Pants Himself, Nathan Fillion🙂 And more, so much more, plus a posse of costumed people sure to bring cheer to even the rainiest of days.
Posted in Likes, Other, tagged awesome, creativity, fun, Google, ideas, inspiration, internet, magic, Random, smiling now on March 26, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Oh, this is wonderful. I’ve just gone to an underground lot in China, a restaurant in India, and an Arctic outpost. Wherever the Secret Door takes you, I doubt you will be disappointed.
Thank you, magic internet!
The Secret Door is presented by Safestyle UK
Posted in Likes, Reviews, tagged arts, awesome, comedy, entertainment, fun, funny, goofy, movies, Reviews, science fiction, SF, sff on March 2, 2013| 1 Comment »
Space Milkshake: A Movie Review, or, An Appreciation of Sci-Fi Comedy
Current trends in genre movies lean toward zombies, war, and the Apocalypse, but I’d like to take a moment to appreciate the benefits of humor in science fiction. Sure, our future planet may be filled with trash, our scientists mad, and our educational standards in decline, but at least we should be able to laugh about it. What is humor, if not a way to cope with (and thereby begin to address) our problems? I spend Saturday nights watching B movies of the science fiction and fantasy persuasion for just that reason. With that in mind, I settled in to watch Space Milkshake.
Starring Robin Dunne (Sanctuary), Billy Boyd (The Lord of the Rings), Kristin Kreuk (Smallville, Beauty and the Beast), Amanda Tapping (Stargate, Sanctuary), and George Takei (Star Trek) as the voice of Gary the duck, the film allows each of these actors to emphasize their comedic strengths.
The story is a classic crucible, sci-fi style. The setting is a future Earth where space debris is a serious problem, addressed by permanently-crewed orbital stations tasked with space lane maintenance. Geosynchronous trash trucks, if you will. While living on one such station, our cast of hapless sanitation workers find their lives disrupted by a rubber duck from space. Needless to say, there’s more to the little yellow duck than meets the eye.
George Takei does a wonderful turn as Gary; he is now my gold standard for voicing mutant rubber duckies. The rest of the acting team delivers as well. Kreuk’s job is one of the hardest, given that she doesn’t speak for a significant portion of the film. And while it’s a stretch to imagine bathtubs would be feasible on such a future space station, it does allow for a tension-filled scene with Amanda Tapping in a bubble bath with the aforementioned duck. What could be better?
This was my best B-movie Saturday night in a long time. Space Milkshake is a low-budget film with sets and special effects to match, but the movie is well put-together and the actors all appear to be having a terrific time. This is quality B-movie material, and I mean that in the best of ways. Think My Name is Bruce. The movie is also sprinkled with shout-outs to classic science fiction and fantasy like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings, and is prime material for homegrown drinking games, should your proclivities lean in that direction.
Space Milkshake is pure comic entertainment. And no, I don’t understand the title,* but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment. If you have a soft spot for science fiction that embraces goofy fun, and enjoy well-scripted, conscientiously-acted movies, you should see this film.
Bottom line: if you like science fiction, have a goofy sense of humor, and are ready to be entertained, break out the popcorn and enjoy a deliciously funny Space Milkshake.
Director: Armen Evrensel
Writer: Armen Evrensel
Stars: Kristin Kreuk, Amanda Tapping, Billy Boyd, George Takei, Robin Dunne
Sci-Fi / Comedy
2012
* Note from the future: Funny how colloquial phrases may not immediately resonate. If the title had been “Space Mashup” it would have made sense to me from the outset.
Posted in Likes, Other, tagged awesome, creativity, fun, inspiration, Motivation, Thoughts, Videos, yay on February 3, 2013| 2 Comments »
I know, in internet years Kid President is past retirement age by now. I don’t care. I tried to ignore this video for a whole week but finally broke down, and I’m glad I did. This kid is great, and his message is even better. Watch it. And be awesome.
Posted in Writing, tagged fun, writing on June 19, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Yes, I am one of those people who saddles up in November to draft a novel, in a month, with NaNoWriMo. It’s a terrific way to circumvent all those annoyingly reasonable excuses for doing other, much more practical things, like laundry and work that actually pays. I’ve done it for two years now and (looks aside modestly) won both times. All that means, of course, is that I’ve managed to pump out a surprising amount of text in a surprisingly short time. As someone who sometimes over-thinks their writing (do I really need that comma?), I liked that. I liked it so much, in fact, that I decided to run my own version of the challenge in May, for short stories.
Short Story Writing Month, a.k.a. ShoStoWriMo
— The goal? To draft a lot of short stories. Thirty stories. In a month.
— The rules: No rules, just writing. Ok, I decided to cut myself some slack and only write on workdays, but whatever works, right?
How did it go? Quite well, actually. Nothing like impossible goals, caffeine-fueled enthusiasm, and a complete lack of editorial criticism to finish a draft.
Would I recommend this exercise? Definitely. Obviously, I’ve still got lots of editing work to do, but I’m not looking at a blank page anymore. Awesome. And while NaNoWriMo is satisfying, there’s something truly terrific about starting and finishing a draft in a single day.
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