Arthur C. Clarke, 1917-2008

Read The Star and The Nine Billion Names of God, if you haven't before (or in a while).

He will be missed.

Reposted for Truth (or at least Truthiness)

From here:

"Made lots of money" is not the same thing as "was good."

"I liked it more than X" is not the same thing as "it was better than X."

"They" don't owe "the fans" anything.

"The fans" did not save it.

"The people who only like it now that it's popular" are not inferior to "the longterm fans."

"Enjoyable" is not the same as "good."

The creators are not beholden to your "personal canon" or fan-fiction.

"They" are not out to personally ruin your enjoyment.

Someone who likes it for a different reason than you do is not wrong.

Someone who doesn't like it is not wrong.

Completely Disgusting

Check out the video at the link: http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=5361 (if you can stomach it, that is - I could only watch about 30 seconds at a time without wanting to retch)

Yes, that's a church group singing about how God hates the world (and all its people). It's apparently too late for us to do anything about it, too - not sure what good it does us to know that we're all damned, then... maybe it's just a superiority thing. Oh, and we eat our kids, too, apparently.

As Warren mentions, the last 30 seconds or so is just horrible - it's a little child (who is barely old enough to pronounce the words, it seems) singing along.

This uplifting message of hope is brought to you by the same folks who brought you godhatesfags.com.

Now Reading (Dec '07)

Whew. Went crazy on checking books out with the inter-library loan feature - I had 60 books on request at one point in the last month, mostly graphic novels.

• Night Watch, by Sergei Lukyanenko - reading this one now. It's a Russian fantasy/horror book (one in a four book series) that was made into a successful movie. Apparently the movie was the first big-budget fantasy film in Russia. Book is pretty good so far.
• Read the 30 Days of Night series as outlined in my last "Now Reading" post. Decent stuff, I hope the later ones get made. Also finished Promethea.
• New Star Wars: Republic Commando book is out - True Colors. Enjoyed it, goes a lot more in-depth on the Clone Wars than other books (or the films) did.
• Annihilation from Marvel - the first two trades. I dig me some cosmic-level sci-fi comics stories. The first trade (with the prologue, Nova mini-series and Drax mini-series) was really enjoyable, the second (with the Surfer, Super-Skrull and Ronan mini-series) was more uneven. Looking forward to the third.
• Mystery in Space - did I mention love me some cosmic sci-fi comic stories? This was pretty good as well. Looking forward to the conclusion of this one.
• Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes: Dominator War - nice wrap-up of the Mark Waid/Barry Kitson collaboration. I doubt I'll keep buying these now that those two are gone, but it was still decent.
• Iron Man: Hypervelocity - really wanted to like this one more, and there were some really neat uses of the Iron Man armor in it, but overall I was disappointed.
  
• Planet Hulk - enjoyed this one a lot. I hope the follow-up (World War Hulk) is as good.
• Got the second Checkmate trade collection (Pawn Breaks), but I'm still waiting on the first one. Still, really enjoyed it - read a lot like Queen & Country but with superheroes.
  
• In Brief: Let's see, also read: Infinite Crisis (not bad but overhyped), the Infinite Crisis Companion (meh), Teen Titans: Titans Around the World (okay), House of M (better than I expected), Civil War (meh), a bunch of JSA books (Savage Times, Black Reign, Black Vengeance, Lost, Mixed Signals), a bunch of JLA books (New Maps of Hell, Trial by Fire, Golden Perfect, Pain of the Gods), Wonder Woman: Hiketeia, Batman: Death and the Maidens, Trinity, a bunch of Spider-man (The Other, Venomous and The Last Stand), Wolverine: Enemy of the State (all of Millar's start to read the same after a while), Astonishing X-men: Torn (decent but doesn't actually end), and some X-men (First Foursaken, End of Greys and Essential v. 2). Did I miss any? Oh yeah, still have DC: The New Frontier (both volumes), a bunch of Flash trades (Rogues, Crossfire, Ignition and Rogue War) and a bunch of Wonder Woman trades (Land of the Dead, Mission's End, Bitter Rivals and Down to Earth) to get through.
  
• And then there's the stuff that's still coming. ;)

I've had a lot to read, it feels like.

UPDATE: Forgot one - Stephen King's Gunslinger Born - nice little re-telling of the events of Wizard and Glass. I hope the sequels travel some new territory, though.

Wish I'd thought of this one

http://www.overheardintheoffice.com/archives/005625.html

Happy Wha-huh?

Saturday we went out to celebrate my 32nd birthday. Red Robin was the first stop (I love that place) and then we went bowling at the Brunswick Lanes in Columbia.

At one point I'm up for my first roll of a frame and I hear over the loudspeaker: "Attention guests, we'd like to announce a special event tonight..."

Great. I line up my shot.

"Michael Fogg is celebrating..."

Yeah yeah. I start to throw the ball.

"... his 40th birthday with us this evening!"

WHAT? Ball goes awry, I hit something like 3 pins. My wife is laughing fit to split.

Now Reading (October '07)

• Read my way through the four books in Julian May's Saga of Pliocene Exile (as well as the vinculum book, Intervention), and now working on her Galactic Milieu series (I'm on Jack the Bodiless now). Good stuff.
• Terry Pratchett has a new book out! Oooh, and it starts Moist Von Lipvig, from Going Postal - pity it wasn't as good as that one (although I'm biased, as Going Postal was one of my favorites of his recent releases). Still worth reading.
• Read the new Death Star novel - meh. I expected more, somehow.
• Found volumes 1-4 of Promethea at the library - now I just need the last one! Great story, although the lengthy quest in the middle feels more like a digression by the author than anything else.
• Waiting to re-read 30 Days of Night and read the sequels (as soon as the books show up at the library). We saw the movie last weekend - I don't see many horror films these days, and this one was pretty good.

Looking forward to seeing I Am Legend in December - I may need to re-read the book beforehand.