Lately, No Donkeys

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

I’m looking over

So this past weekend I had some friends up. We had a little frozen precipitation, but nothing stuck. So Saturday we went to the movies and watched “Cloverfield.” I had seen the trailers for it and had heard a few things. I was really anxious to see it, but I was also afraid that the camera movements would make me sick. I had a really had time with “The Blair Witch Project.” That movie had a shaky camera though the whole thing. I don’t know what possesses them to do that. Yeah it was realistic, but I had to close my eyes through about 1/3 of the movie due to a splitting motion sickness induced headache. Cloverfield had a similar camera effect, but it was easier to close my eyes during the high motion sections that didn’t really show anything. Anyway on with the review.


The movie follows a guy and his friends. The premise is someone is filming a sendoff party for one of the main characters. During the party the city is rocked by an “earthquake” and then explosion. Then it becomes obvious that it’s no mere accident. Something really big is in the city and it’s tearing up the place and killing people. The rest of the movie is about the people trying to get away.


It was pretty well done. There were some stupid parts. I always wonder if these characters have never watched a scary or a monster movie before. Here’s a tip. When stuff starts running one way you should probably follow it. And some others for people that might get trapped in a horror movie situation, when the scary things get scared it’s bad and don’t go to see what that noise is. Also, there is never too much ammunition. So in all I really liked the movie, even with the headache inducing camera motion. I’d like to watch it again, but I’ll wait for the smaller screen. I also really want to see a sequel. We talked about it at home and thought a parallel time line from the military point of view might be interesting, especially if it crosses the path of the same actors. They did a really good job making a unique monster, and driving suspense. It also leaves you with a lot of questions that never get answered. That’s for the next movie.


If you like scary monster movies then this is a must see, even at full price. If you have bad motion sickness, close your eyes when the camera is really bouncing around. At least it stops for some of the conversations.

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Saturday, January 12, 2008

Special Delivery

I finished The Postman by David Brin in short order. It’s good to get back to old reading speed after a hiatus. I originally got this book at a B&N in Columbia I believe. I was there with a couple friends. We talked about The Uplift series by Brin and I looked to see if they had it. They didn’t, but I got a copy of The Postman instead. It helped me remember Brin’s name, and I was curious about after haven seen the movie. I admit I was one of the people that watched “The Postman” movie, Kevin Cosner’s other post-apocalyptic movie. It didn’t get good reviews at all, though I didn’t think it deserved the roasting it got. Anyway I’m going to ramble on about the book for probably longer than it deserves.


Hmm. I’m having a bit of trouble thinking about this book. I want to say much about it, but I don’t want to give too much away. I’m going to try to not spoil anything. Luckily the details are what were the most enjoyable; even though the expected outcome is probably know well ahead of time. If you want to be safe from spoilage, then skip to the last paragraph.


I realize now that this is going to be long. As a prelude I offer two “sayings” I guess. One is “If you tell a lie long enough, you may come to believe it yourself.” And second, “If you tell a lie with enough hope, it can become the truth.”


The book is copyrighted in ’85, to give a little perspective on when it was written. The story is about one Gordon Krantz. It’s after the fall of large scale civilization. Information about the fall is doled out throughout the novel. It’s been thirteen years since the DoomWar. After the extravagance of the 80’s came a recession, that sparked a growth of extremist groups, primarily the survivalists of the west and the mystics of the Asian continent. The recession seemed to have been fought back and the US was on the road to prosperity again. Then the East lost control of some of their nukes, and they were let fly. The US responded in kind, but somehow restraint was maintained. Only the major cities were destroyed, and the detritus in the air caused a winter of 3 years rather than the decades a whole-scale nuclear conflict would have caused. The EMPs and radiation destroyed communication and collapsed the network of interdependency that the US had developed. Militias, one containing Gordon Krantz, guarded huge silos filled with grain in the Midwest while cities in the east starved. The cities had large supplies of medicines while the farmers died of rampant disease. There was no coordination possible.


If it were merely the bombs many may have survived, but the east had also lost control of biological weapons. Diseases unlike any ever seen, or at least not seen in any modern times, ravaged the population as many more starved in the three year winter. However, even this subsided, and order might have managed to gain another foothold, but for one final plague. The survivalists with their hoardings of food and massive amounts of ammunition came out of their hiding places. Many followed the teachings of one Nathan Holn who promoted the idea of a survivalist, misogynistic, and violent way of life. They ravaged the barely surviving towns and peoples. They killed and destroyed everything they could not enslave. They are the one thing rival towns and peoples rallied together to fight. By the book most survivalist groups have been destroyed save for a few small groups spread around and one large group in southern Oregon, but the damage has already been done.


That’s where the book begins. Gorgon has been on a long trek West looking for some place where someone is trying to make civilization again, “Taking Responsibility” as he calls it. He has been working his way as a minstrel. He does renditions of MacBeth, Lincoln’s speeches, etc for food and shelter. He’s bushwhacked by a small group of survivalists who take almost all his clothes and possessions. Being in the mountains approaching winter, it means certain death. He chases after them, but looses the trail and stumbles upon the catalyst for the story, a jeep with US Post Office on it. Gordon hides inside for the night, the next day he takes the uniform to replace his lost clothes, what supplies are in the jeep, and some letters to pass the time. From the postmark Gordon realizes the Postman died 2 years after the Doom War. He had never heard of anyone holding on to a remnant of civilization for that long after the war.


Gordon comes to Pine View where does his song, dance, and overacting performance, but something peculiar happens. He tells the town that he found the Postman’s uniform, but most of the town takes to believing he’s actually a Postman. For some reason they don’t get that he just salvaged the uniform. They even ask if he will take letters with him when he heads West. He doesn’t want to upset the nice townspeople that helped him, so he agrees. The seed is planted. At the next town Gordon is shot at and has a find of supplies taken. He conceives a plan to use the uniform to his advantage. He forges documents and with bravado approaches the palisade as a official Postal Inspector for the Restored US Government. The bluff is almost lost until he goes through the Pineview letters and finds one for whom the recipient is still alive. The lie is born.


Gordon continues West. He perpetuates the lie and becomes quite adept at it. He co-ops the cynics, usually the smartest of the towns, and appoints them postmaster for the town. They even set up courier services with the previous towns he has visited. He hands out “official” edicts from the government with guidelines that he created from seeing the worst of what the towns would eventually degrade to. His rules head off slavery, generational servitude, degradation into feudalism, and mandates elections for town leaders. And the damned thing works. Gordon keeps working his way through Oregon using the Postman uniform to gain entry into towns and get supplies. He keeps looking for someone who has tried to rebuild civilization, the one taking responsibility.


The he hears a familiar sound and finds children playing with a portable video game. He goes in search of this Cyclops that is supplying these and other small electronics. On the way he finds a band of survivalists, a possible scout party for an invasion force. He rushes towards where he thinks Cyclops is with hope and warning. He had hoped to leave the uniform behind if Cyclops was even half what he hoped, but that dream would die when he had to use the old lie to try to warn the people. He meets Cyclops, the last sentient supercomputer from before the war, but something isn’t quite right. He tries to leave, but his conscience makes him return to help fight the survivalists.


I’ll leave the story at that. It’s probably much too much detail, but it’s already written. No sense going back over it.


As with most books this is much better than the movie. It’s odd on the B&N site some reviewers preferred the movie. I’ve read a few post apocalyptic novels, and I usually like the ones that cover the attempts at recovery rather than just survival or covering what caused it. I like following Gordon as he spreads his lie in an attempt to survive and becomes the very thing he has been searching for. There are also some interesting ideas that Brin adds. I like that he made the collapse of civilization a series of disasters, the last of which being stupid people. There’s the recurring theme that there are two types of men. Nathan Holn said they were the weak and the strong, the servants and the masters. Dena said it was the monsters and the heroes, the battle hungry and the reluctant fighters. The final conflict revolves around just that. Then there are the interesting ideas that the feminists are developing, which seem to be highly influenced by Lysistrata. One of them blames lack of intervention by the women for the fall of civilization. They believe that men can do both great and horrible things, and that it is the responsibility of the women to cull the bad seed and be responsible for the men they create. Anyway, it’s interesting to read.


So I highly recommend this one to anybody that likes post-apocalyptic or future science fiction novels. It read pretty quick and drew m through the story pretty well. Now back to Benny, which I find appropriate considering he essentially created the modern postal system that helped unite the original colonies.

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Friday, January 11, 2008

Boomstick of My Own

A few months before I started going to school at Clemson my Grandfather passed away. My Grandmother lived in the house for 10 or so more years, before her failing eyesight forced her to move. There is a bunch of stuff one can collect in a house over 50+ years. Piles and lists were made of what to keep, sell, give away, or throw away. One item was in the back of my Grandparent's closet. It had probably sat unused for around 30 years. My dad nor his brothers seemed all that interested in it, and so that's how I acquired my Grandfather's shotgun. I'll ramble a bit about it, with illustrations, after the link.


It's a Stevens 12 gauge, 2-3/4 " shell, double barrel model 5100. I've looked around, but this one seems to have been made before that started stamping a date code on them. That puts it at least before '49, which I would have guessed already. It's not a long gun. My Dad said Granddad used it to hunt rabbits I think. Anyway at the time I was renting a house with some friends. I kept the gun in the closet, and didn't bother with having it checked out or keeping any ammunition. I mean I was sharing a house I didn't own with other people. I didn't need liability.


Well After I bought my mortgage I started thinking about the gun more. In my yard I've seen opossums, squirrels, a wild dog of some kind, deer, and the previous owners had a black bear come by. You can understand why I was thinking about the gun. I'm only really worried about the four legged intruders. I decided to have the thing checked out. I wanted to have it cleaned in case 30 years of dust may have gotten in it. It looked in really good shape to me, but I'm not that familiar with guns. Besides, knowing Granddad, he kept it immaculate. I took it to Grady's in Anderson. I've been there before and a friend said they set him up with his handgun about getting ammo and cleaning supplies.


I got a case for the gun and brought it back the next day. The older gentleman behind the counter took a look at the gun and said that it was in excellent shape and didn't really have any dirt on it. He recommended spraying it down with some cleaner and letting it drain down the barrels, but other than that it was ready to go. I picked up a couple boxes of ammo, 00 Buck and a box of turkey load #4 for varments. Apparently Grady's had a big Christmas and were out of all kinds of ammo. So I went home an ordered 30 rounds of 3 different types of light load shells to see which ones I liked. I've got some friends coming up for MLK day, and we might make a journey to a gun range another friend uses. It would be my first time using powder. I'm probably going to have to write that one up too.

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Monday, January 07, 2008

Eternal Knight

As you can tell I’ve finished Fall of Knight by Peter David. A can’t believe that it’s been over two years since I read the previous book of the series, and the first before that. I’ve been eagerly awaiting this one, but in actuality it has been sitting on my shelf for a little while. I kind of stopped reading for several months there, but I’m trying to make a comeback. I took a pause 1/3 of the way though the Franklin biography. It’s good, but I needed a respite from 700+ pages of 10 point font.


This is the third and probably final of the series. This book is more like the previous one than like the first. Look at my previous review for what I’m talking about. Most of what I said about the quality of the second book applies here as well, but first the plot points. Basically this book starts a couple months after Arthur fights for the Grail and heals his wife Gwen. She and he are keeping a low profile alone on a sail boat in the Pacific. I mean how can Arthur explain the miraculous recovery of the former First Lady after a sniper round to the head? Surprise of surprises they are found out and rumors start flying all over the place about secret government treatments not available to the public and such. Arthur comes back to Washington and comes clean about what happened. Pilgrims start surrounding the White House wanting help from the Grail. Arthur goes into hiding, Merlin disappears, and some yahoo shows up with the Spear of Destiny. They seem to work something out about using the Grail to help people, but then all Hell tries to break lose. In the end it goes to show that there is no such thing as a free lunch.


I thoroughly enjoyed this book as much as the second. It gets a bit darker, and some won’t like it for some of the religious stance it takes. I mean come on it has the Grail and the Spear of Longinus in it. How can it not be controversial? If differing ideas don’t daunt you then I recommend this to anyone who likes the genre.

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Sunday, January 06, 2008

Movies Movies Movies

I’ve been lazy and haven’t kept up with my requisite movie reviews. I’ve got four in total that I should have done by now, but just didn’t bring myself to write. I’d feel really bad about it if I thought someone cared. Anyway, I’ll be rambling about them after the link.

First, way back before Christmas I went to see “The Golden Compass.” It got decent reviews, so I figured what the heck. Well It was a pretty decent movie. I don’t think it went as well as say “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe,” but it was pretty good for the kids. It seemed to jump a bit in the story telling. It was a bit jarring, and I sometimes felt I had missed a scene or two. Luckily there were some good actors in the flick that smoothed some of that over. Had the acting had issues it would have made the editing/directing flop. It did make me want to read the book series though. As a consequence I bought a copy at the book store after Christmas. It’s actually an omnibus of the “His Dark Materials” series by Philip Pullman. I’m hoping that, as is usually the case, the book is more thorough than the movie. It’s on my list of things to get to.


Then there was the standard Christmas Day movie my family started as a tradition years ago. We looked at what was out and decided that everyone would probably enjoy seeing “National Treasure: Book of Secrets.” I did enjoy it for the most part. It wasn’t as good as the original, but the reviews said that as well. There wasn’t nearly as much problem solving and clue following in this one. Plus some of the initial drama wasn’t explained very well, nor was it pulled off that well. But it was entertaining, and they left it open for a third movie.


Yesterday I went to watch “I am Legend.” I’ve never read the book or seen the two other film adaptations. This one deviates from the book, as all good film adaptations should. First I will say that those among you that dislike scary movies probably should wait to rent this. I’m not a big fan of scary movies myself, but I will admit that I had to make sure I set my drink down at certain times. Luckily those times are well telegraphed. Smith offers a great performance that really brings home the silliness and seriousness of the human dependency on interpersonal contact. The film almost feels like it has two parts. There is the mediocrity of the daily living, the doing the dishes part of the movie, and then there is the fight for survival. It’s really a pretty good movie. You just have to get past the obvious CGI creatures. But it isn’t called suspension of disbelief for nothing.


Then today I went to see “Sweeny Todd.” Well now that was just a good time right there. I don’t get to see musicals much, unless they are made by Disney. And there is a whole lot of singing in this movie. I’ve watched musicals on television and in person before, but this was jam packed with it. I know some people don’t care for musicals, but I’m not recommending it to them. I was actually surprised at how funny parts of it were. It reminds me of the human ability to make light of almost any situation. I recommend it to anyone that likes a bit of dark, gory, funny, and musical entertainment.

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Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Holiday Return

It’s only been a month since last I wrote. That’s better than my previous hiatus. I’m not going to lie. December was busy, and I probably had things I could have written about. Let’s see if I can cover some of what happened.


Classes came to an end with exams. That actually went better than I had hoped. There wasn’t much that went wrong other than a few maintenance items. I’m still “Primary Supplies Orderer” and considered “Lead Technician” at work. I take that as a vote of confidence from my boss. Had a week and a half off and am back today, though I do not want to be. It was 22 degrees F when I left the house this morning. Classes start next week and I’m not sure when we get to install those two new classrooms. That’s pretty much work.


Over Christmas I went home to spend time with family. My Godmother had hip replacement surgery earlier this year. That went beautifully once it was accomplished, but soon thereafter she began having what amounts to a compressed nerve issue in her back that is making the same damned leg hurt. Essentially the pain is still there, ain’t that some luck. There is some hope that a new procedure she is scheduled for will remove the compression and get her back up and going almost immediately. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.


My family went to visit my Dad’s and Mother’s family separately. At both locations we do a “Chinese auction (read the bottom of the article).” Anyway, some people like it and some don’t. The rules area always a source of contention, but we never have any problems with actual execution. I usually just hang back and let others bicker about the rules, because I don’t really care. I found out a long time ago that the secret to those games it to expect to get nothing of any use. For my Dad’s family I actually stole a book form my brother called Weapon. It’s pretty nice. I think I got a shoeshine kit at my Mom’s family’s exchange. There it’s always more fun to watch everyone else’s reactions anyway.


We had our usual Christmas Eve and day stuff. Went to church for communion, Mom’s family, and went home to prepare for Christmas day. We got up and did our usual stocking stuff and prepared for breakfast. We usually have some visitors over for Christmas Breakfast. Then we went about some present opening in the front room. Mom has two trees, the 10 ft white and gold ornament tree in the front room and the 7 ft “Ethnic Tree” in the back room. I started calling it the ethic tree, because that’s where all the multi-colored ornaments and lights she used to use on the front tree wound up when she switched to white and gold up there. It kind of stuck, and it makes me proud. Anyway she wraps all the presents in the front room in white and gold paper and bows. To keep the base of the tree neat she overflows presents to the Ethnic Tree, but those presents get more vibrant paper and bows. Anyway we started cleaning out the underside of the front tree for a while, per custom. Normally we would then go to a movie at around 2-4 PM. We started that tradition when the movie theater opened in town. But this year the theater thwarted us by delaying their opening until 7 PM. That threw our whole schedule off. My Godparents weren’t able to come over early because of dinner plans. It worked out fine anyway. We went and saw “National Treasure.” I’ll review that shortly. My brother and I went to see my godparents after the movie, since my Godmother was having problems with her back. It wasn’t what we normally did, but all was accomplished.


I got a microwave, games, DVDs, books, and some other assorted things. My sister got some furniture and stuff for her new house, and my brother got an IPod, DVDs, and stuff. My Mom and Dad bought a new TV for their den like 3 weeks before Christmas. Their anniversary is the 20th, so they called it an Anniversary/Christmas present to each other. Since they are so had to shop for, Mom buys things when she needs then regardless of how close Christmas is, we decided we could get them a small home theater in a box system to go with the LCD TV. We had discussed the option in previous years, but the new TV clinched it. We knew Mom would be a little unsure about it, she has a hard time with remotes and electronics, so we also got a gift certificate for them to go out for dinner and my brother found dishes to fill out her plates and bowls in her pattern.


All in all it was a pretty decent Christmas. There were a few bumps, but everyone made it through. Hopefully next year everyone will be up and back to their usual selves.

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