Fiction – Page 10 – The Evil Eyebrow

Category: Fiction

Modern Marvels' Marveliscioustasticness

I watch the History Channel. It soothes my occasional need for something interesting to look at while my mind zones on other things. Modern Marvels is a particular favorite because they manage to explore (superficially) a lot of different subjects that we don’t run into on a day to day basis. For example, last night I was watching Railroads* which was cool because I learned about Bailey Yard (Google Maps Link), the largest railroad switching yard in the world. See the wikipedia link for more info, although the acreage and track numbers listed in wikipedia don’t match what was on Modern Marvels last night.

Coincidentally, the Modern Marvels episode prior to this one was about “The Strongest” stuff, including Tugboats, and I slowly draw near to why I’m writing this post. The tugboat in question, made by the Foss Company in Oregon, is powered by two 4000 hp railroad engines.

Now, if you watch Modern Marvels, you are familiar with the little bit of trivia they sling at you just before every commercial break and the deep intonations of massive importance and wondrous awe. Usually, the tidbits are interesting, but sometimes they manage to state something that might be considered…obvious. For example: [paraphrasing, approximately]

The tugboat is powered by two 4000 hp railroad engines, [deep ominous voice] each capable of pulling a fully loaded passenger train.

Duh?

*I think it was called Railroads. I went to the Modern Marvels website and the most recent episode they had in their “archive” was February 9th.

March 1, 2007
Sick as Proverbial Pooch

I have a nasty cold. It started on Friday last and by Saturday I was down for the count. The couch and I became very close friends. I didn’t sleep during the day much, so I watched a lot of movies and TV. Here’s the count, plus my evaluation.
The Guardian. Kevin Costner and Aashton Kutcher. Old-hand Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer teaches values to New Recruit. Entirely predictable and not worth your time, although it had cool rescue scenes.
Flyboys. James Franco. American Cowboy goes to Europe to fly against Germany in WWI. Really REALLY predicatvle and not worth your time.
Accepted. Justin Long. High School graduate who isn’t a slacker somehow is not accepted to any colleges (?) and through a series of unfortunate events, founds his own. Exactly what I expected, so it didn’t disappoint, but my expectations were low. The main character had an annoying tendency to pratfall every third scene or so. Why? I don’t know; it was unnecessary.

Still to be watched: A Scanner Darkly and Little Miss Sunshine.

TV Movies watched this weekend: Under Siege, the only Steven Seagal movie worth watching; Love Actually, a Christmas movie that drove me nuts in the theater, but wasn’t horrible on TV with Tivo at hand; Notting Hill, one of Jenn and My favorite movies; How to lose a guy in 10 Days, which while stupid, wasn’t so stupid I didn’t like it.

I also watched an excellent snake documentary on the Discovery Channel with that Nature Narrator Dude who does all sorts of shows (who’s name I cannot recall). They had snake-cameras and everything. Even a cute baby cobra.

Shark Jumping: Thy Name is Battlestar

I’m disappointed to note that I believe Battlestar Galactica has Jumped the Shark.

Almost the entirety of season 3 has been disjointed and weird. The beginning credits note that the Cylons “Have a Plan” but even they don’t seem to know what it is.

Battlestar has moved away from what made it so good during the mini-series and first season. The strong roles played by each iconic character against the backdrop of the evil human-destroying cylons made it a great series. Now they’re taking valuable time to develop nebulous concepts and explore interactions amongst minor characters. This would normally be great, except the set of Battlestar is way too small to do this.

Alas, I am not a professional critic. I am a professional science fiction appreciator though, in that I pay myself to do it. And my opinion is that if the next couple episodes don’t get better, I’m not going to watch any more.

Dresden Files

I’ve been trying to write a post about the Dresden Files since the second episode. I keep putting it down and then the next week’s episode is broadcast and I have to modify it. Everything below the fold was my draft comments as of last week, take them as they are, I stick by them.

However, I have to say that I don’t like the show anymore. It’s disappointing on a number of levels. What makes the books so good is the mixing of supernatural with the “real” and Harry’s angst in dealing with it all. This is entirely missing from the TV show. I will probably keep watching it, like an incipient car wreck, and I’ll let you know if I think it is getting better. Firefly, this is not. which probably means it will stick around for 6 seasons

(more…)

J.K. Rowling has Finished

J.K. Rowling has finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She apparently likes this book best of all seven.

Ms. Rowling has this to say on her website. I quote it in its entirety, because she doesn’t seem to have an archive for past comments and I don’t want you to miss it. (more…)

Robert Jordan

As mentioned in my post of April 7, 2006, Robert Jordan, the author of The Wheel of Time, was diagnosed with amyloidosis and has been undergoing treatment since May.

Silly me, I had figured that the Tor website where I first caught the news would occasionally have updates, at least to say, “He’s not dead yet.” I continue to be unimpressed by Tor’s web presence. They need to take some pages from the manual of Baen Books.

I apparently haven’t been shopping around the right web spaces. An article in Forbes brought me up to speed. It covers the difference between a fan and a FAN. The first type likes RJ’s books and the second is willing to donate bone marrow for his treatment.

Latest prediction is that the last book will be out in 2009, at some obscenely high page-count. RJ has stated in my presence that there will be only one more book, if we have to wheel it out of Barnes and Noble with a handcart.

Hopefully, RJ’s illness will go into complete remission and he will be able to get back to the writing that he loves. Personally, if it is a choice between the man’s life and the end of the Wheel of Time, I say that he should concentrate on recovery.

Robert Jordan’s struggle with amyloidosis and other things is chronicled in his blog.

Useless News Sites

I used to live in Lubbock Texas. You may have heard about it last night on Heroes wherein our chirpy protagonista Claire is supposedly skipping school to visit the aquarium there (Aquarium? Lubbock? Bobby Knight must have brought it with him).

Apparently, there’s been some excitement recently. Enough hit the AP wires at least. A man has been setting traps on the bike trails around town to deter bicyclists from riding in environmentally sensitive areas. As one of my friends might say, “Freaking Hippies!” Not that I don’t applaud this man’s goal, but his methods seem a bit…ummmm, felonius.

If you click on the previous link, you’ll notice that it is a google search page. As of 6 Feb 07, there were tons and tons of hits to this story, most from news organizations. But if you search within the local Lubbock Avalanche Journal’s website you get…nothing.

It’s good to see that the citizens of West Texas are being well served by their news companies. “If you don’t know about it, ask a neighbor,” while true in Lubbock, doesn’t help anyone who wants to research the archives.

Don't You Hate it When…

…you purchase a book you’ve already read?

I bought Singularity Sky by Charles Stross with Christmas gift-card money. I brought it home and set it aside for when I was done with the other books I was reading. A few nights ago, I picked it up, started reading, and immediately said (out loud), “awww crap.”

Oops. I guess I should read the first page of every book I buy from now on.

Category: Fiction

Modern Marvels' Marveliscioustasticness

Sick as Proverbial Pooch