[  Mood: Neutral ]
[  Currently: Eating Breakfast ]
I have made no secret of my enjoyment of the Dresden Files series. I am quivering with excitement over Jim Butcher’s plans to attend Polaris this July. Geeklet will be going to some readings. So it was with joy that I picked up Dead Beat from the library.

Dead Beat finds Harry dealing with necromancers who have converged on Chicago looking for a deadly book. He is also trying to protect Murphy from the Black Court Vampires and has a fallen angel trying to tempt him with more power. The White Council’s war with the Red Court is getting expensive. Harry’s little puppy has gotten much, much, much bigger and may be smarter than Harry. Oh yeah, and Harry gets to ride a zombie dinosaur.

This is a great book. I strongly recommend it as it was a lot of fun.

[  Mood: Shocked ]
[ Currently: Drinking Organic Black Ginger Tea ]
Apparently the French have managed to out do the British and put out the Olympic Torch in Paris. Apparently the police have done it cause they are worried about the protesters. Twice.

Wonder if the Olympic Committee is getting the message yet?

(And Husband Unit and I were talking about this issue on the weekend and we speculated about what might happen after the Olympics, once the world is not watching.)

[  Mood: Shocked ]
So the great Chuck Heston has died. This is a sad time, as Ben-Hur and Ten Commandments were some of my fave movies growing up.

Forget the man’s politics (remember the guy marched with the civil rights movement, yet opposed affirmative action – and don’t get me started on the NRA). This man was in some of the greatest science-fiction/fantasy films of all time. Solient Green, Planet of the Apes, True Lies and, yes, even "seaQuest DSV" – the first season.

But my fave memory of Chuck Heston comes from the documentary Celluloid Closet. Apparently, Gore Vidal was doing some work on the screenplay of Ben-Hur and couldn’t find a reason why Messala, who had been childhood friends with Ben-Hur, would hate him now that he was back. Vidal hatched the idea that as young teens, Messala and Ben-Hur had homosexual dalliance. Now that he was back, he wanted to continue, but Ben-Hur was having none of that.

Vidal went to William Wyler, the director, who thought it was brilliant. "But you can’t tell Chuck!" were his instructions. So Vidal went off to tell Stephen Boyd, who played Messala. "Brilliant!" was his reaction.

So with that knowledge watch the reunion scene between Messala and Ben-Hur (that is near the beginning of this tribute). You will see that Boyd is acting rings around Heston and Heston is clueless.

And let me tell you, Ben-Hur is a completely different movie knowing that there is a homosexual subtext.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[  Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
My upbringing was not typical. My dad ended up with four girls, so we were not raised as "girlies" by him. By the age of 12, I had learned how to solder, mix and pour concrete, drive a tractor and a Caterpillar, hang drywall, mow a lawn, move a wheelbarrow and hook up a computer. Let’s be blunt, my dad raised us to be interested in the things he was. I’m pretty sure I was the only five year old girl with a Hot Wheels collection and slot car set.

This continued on into High School, where I joined the tech crew, ran sound boards, set up lights, stage managed and learned how to wire up an electrical cord. I am a mean gaffer tape expert.

So I have always been interested in technology. I even have taught computers at school. (I was supposed to teach Flash animation this spring, but the sick leave thing got in the way.) So this interview with Dean Kamen, best known for inventing the Segway, caught my eye. Especially what he has to say about girls and technology.

And that’s true. It’s why when I run the Flash Animation option, I insist on 50% girls. Girls tend to hang back at the age I work with and the boys are not shy about pushing their way to the front. I also try and find the "tech girls" each year and place the thought in their heads that this could be their career.

Another problem is that in our culture of push button technology, there are whole generations of kids who think that technology is the pushing of a button. They have never taken apart an appliance to see how it works. It’s gotten so bad that some universities have started running courses for first year engineers that have them stripping down appliances and the like so they can see "how things work".

So how do we fix this problem?

Well number one – the education system needs to put more of an emphasis on technology. Up here in Ontario, a lot of the tech courses have gone the way of the do-do until High School.

Number two – we need more female and minority role models for kids. These need to be visible. Sure everyone knows who Bill Gates is, but female and minority computer programmers and engineers need to get out there. Here in Ottawa (a high tech centre) we have WISE who actively encourage girls to go into science and engineering. More of these kind of groups need to be formed.

Number three – kind of fits with Number 2. We need more female teachers for these subjects. Let me tell you, the year I taught the entire Grade 7 & 8 panel computers, was not only a riot for me, but it was also a good thing for the girls who saw a woman out do the little boy hackers. And believe me, I did.

If we did these three things, it would be interesting to see what the results would be.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[  Currently: Watching Old Doctor Who – John Pewtree ]
So it is snowing in Ottawa again. Yup – again – in April. How much fun is that?

Luckily it is warm enough that it should melt away rather than stick around.

Oh well – spring will come soon – I hope.

[  Mood: Silly ]
[  Currently: Eating Breakfast ]
One of the good things about weekly (or bi-weekly) Doctor’s appointments coupled with your report cards being done, is that you have time to do a lot of reading.

The fourth book of the Weather Wardens series finds our heroine Joanne Baldwin working as a weather girl in Florida. The job requires her to dress up in ridiculous costumes and get dumped with water. In short she is second banana to the egotistical main weather man . . . who despite having no powers, has an amazing average in predicting the weather.

Meanwhile, Joanne is under suspicion for manipulating the weather, wardens are being killed, the Djinn are in the middle of a civil war and her sister has shown up. All of these plots weave together and pull against each other, leading to a tense, fast moving novel.

Good stuff, and again, author Rachel Caine keeps this series from being formulaic. Good read.

[ Currently: Watching Astros-Padres Game ]
Salon has produced this amazing Battlestar Galactica primer that includes summaries of all the seasons, a character guide, and answers to some nagging questions.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Everything you were afraid to ask about BSG was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[  Currently: Eating Breakfast ]
I know, I know, I am late coming to the party on this series.

First published in 1996, this book tells the complicated tale of the eruption of a dynastic civil war in the land of Westeros. There is also the laying out of the beginning of the plots for Daenerys,the sole remain heir of the usurped king and the rise of the Others (not the ones from Lost) in the north.

This is thick, dense, complex fantasy. At 700 pages, this is not a quick read. It was also not a quick read because I kept taking breaks. It was good, but there were times that it was too intense and I needed some time away. The author, George R. R. Martin is not afraid to kill off characters he has spent much of the book developing and getting you all excited about.

But this was an awesome book. I recommend it strongly. Go get it.

My new column Nexus Graphica, co-written with Mark London Williams, premieres today at SF Site.

The first entry, stereotypically titled “Secret Origins”, relates the evolution of the column.

Also included is a selection of recent books of interest.

My new SF Site column was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Brian Conin of Comics Should Be Good put together this excellent, thorough FAQ on the whole Superman Copyright issue.

Superman Copyright FAQ was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon