Beyond My Geeky Life

There is something interesting about watching Neil Gaiman read Green Eggs and Ham. http://www.worldbuilders.org/our-next-stretch-goal-unlocks-at/neil-gaiman-reads-green-eggs-and-ham It is one of those things you can't explain to people. They have to watch it themselves.

One website I really love if Cracked,com. They have about the best articles you can find on the internet, ever. They are well written, well thought out and have humor to them. So today I found this one: http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-reasons-star-wars-better-than-star-trek/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=new+article&wa_ibsrc=f Yes, 4 Reasons 'Star Wars' Is Better Than 'Star Trek' is perfect.  That title says it all. And there so much truth in the title alone.  

So last night we had what I will term as a 'bad movie night'. My wife rented two movies that we had heard were bad, but were curious about: 'Percy Jackson; Sea of Monsters' and 'Disney's The Lone Ranger'. They were both bad movies that I can truly not recommend to anyone. As this blog's title suggests I will be focusing on The Lone Ranger. The main feeling I got through out all of the Lone Ranger movie is that our main character at no point felt heroic to me.  Most of the time his actions were non-productive and uninteresting. It was mostly luck that he achieved anything, including his own survival. Near the end he finally started to almost act heroic, even if he still didn't really feel to be so. I got that he believed in justice and didn't think criminals should be shot in cold blood, but would rather see them have a fair trail and all that. He never once shoots a person. The real contradiction is that he is still however actually involve

This time around I will be talking about Denver Comic Con 2013.   It was just a great weekend of fandom on so many levels.   Yes, there were crowds and long lines and at times it got frustrating, but in the end it was highly enjoyable.   For me the greatest part of the convention was the interactions with artists who entertain us across all forms of media.   DCC was incredible this last year with that interaction for my family.     We got to meet Colin Baker, the actor who played the Sixth Doctor in Dr. Who, really nice and outgoing.      We had a great conversation with Daphne Askbrook (She played companion Grace Hollaway in the Doctor Who movie from the late 90s) who was just so excited about all the people she met, claiming to be a huge people watcher.      We also had a truly memorable exchange with Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca from Star Wars) who we had met 10 years ago at Starfest.   My oldest son Quinn was three at the time, bet he remembers the meeting.   We gave Mayh

One thing I have really enjoyed doing with my boys is helping them put together their costumes. This year we are doing the Fifth Doctor and Frodo. We'll most likely get the costumes together next month and hopefully have them finished for the various conventions. In the past we have done The Fourth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, a Delak, A cyberman, Prince Zuko from The Last Airbender, Indiana Jones, Dr. Horrible and Capt. Hammer, Anakin Skywalker from Episode 3, Han Solo, Optimus Prime, Megatron and I think there were a few others I cannot remember.   The 11th Doctor and a Dalek  A Cyberman Vs the 4th Doctor  Megatron vs. Optimus Prime Capt. Hammer and Dr. Horrible With the actual Penny (Felica Day) As a family we have some basic steampunk costumes that we wear to Anomalycon, a local steampunk convention. I also have a generic Jedi Knight costume I have worn from time to time. At Devenation 3 (The World Science Fiction convection here in D

I found a batch of pics showing toy isle from when I was a child.  I showed these to my boys and they thought they were cool. The whole feel of a toy store of toy department in a store was so different than what we have today. They had the isle packed with the toys so you could walk down those isles and be engulfed in it all. Most stores now have a small area for each line and generally keeps a small amount of product out there. Very much not the same feeling. Here in Colorado the big toy store chain when I was growing up was Lionel Playworld. Toys R Us moved into the state and put them out of business.  Yet Toys R Us stores never had the same feel to them. Yes, I did the old man thing and told my boys how I remember one store where the sun light came through the window and lit up the action figure packing that really made the isle feel magic. Stores no longer have windows that would create that kind of vision. It might sound a little cliche, but the magic of the toy d

Recent news from Disney was exactly what I was expecting after they announced the new Star Wars trilogy.  They are going to go through the extensive expanded universe of Star Wars (Everything done outside of the movies themselves) and decide what is and is not official canon for the Star Wars universe. Twenty years ago this would not have been a big deal.  Up until that time frame there was very little in regards to the Star Wars expanded universe (EU).  That was when Lucas decided to do the prequels and knew that he was going to stop after that with a basic six movie saga.  That meant that the books and comics could go on and tell whatever stories they wanted without having to worry about conflicting with the movies. So starting with what is known as the Zahn trilogy various authors have taken the storyline out well past where Return of The Jedi ended.  Luke has been married and widowed.  Han and Leia are grandparents. Chewbacca met his fate. The EU has just had so much put into it

Just a short follow up to yesterday's post. We all got started on World of Warcraft yesterday, but at that time it was only on one computer. I guess now you can actually play for free up to level 20, so I went and got my notebook computer set up for it, which took a while since we had to download the game. I was rather surprised that my boys had not stayed up till all hours playing it. Now that we have it on two computers and can play together, they are getting more into it. So far most of this morning has been spent playing WOW. Yes, even I have gotten back into it. I'll have to watch myself and make sure I don't get caught up in it too much. My oldest son just realized how much of the day has gone by and asked how long he had been playing. Now it will start being hard to get them away from the game.

Always interesting to see what I end up writing about when I feel like adding to this blog. I always have various ideas rattling around in my head, but more often than not those get pushed to the back as events of the day motivate me to take it into different directions. This post is very much one of those. We just got back from getting out and about. While at Big Lots we saw the basic set for World of Warcraft marked down to $5 and my son decided to spend his allowance on it. Knowing him, we will now have real hard time getting him out of his room for the next month. He very much gets addicted to video games and I know from experience how caught up one can get in World of Warcraft. About five years ago my father got me a 90 day subscription for it so that we could play together, even though he lives two states away. He was already addicted and wanted to spread the addiction to others. It is a fun enough game. You get a variety of challenges and have a lot of freedom in your move

All last year my boys really got into Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. I have about a half dozen videos of them singing the songs. We made them costumes from it for them to wear at the various conventions.  They even got to meet Felicia Day at the Denver Comic Con. It was something they really geeked out over. At a Pre-Comic Con party at Mile High Comics the boys wore their costumes. Two of my old friends who I don't see too often were there.  Both of them asked who the boys were supposed to be. After explaining it to them they both admitted they had not watched Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. Needless to say I pushed both of them to watch it. One of them IMed me while he was watching it. He said he didn't get it. He admitted to not being a fan of Nathan Fillion (I know, it doesn't make any sense to me either). I compared it to the movie Mystery Men, which he said he wasn't a fan of either. I had no reply after that. I was a little afraid to push it, as I wou

For some reason it seems like Star Wars is everywhere today. Spike TV was doing their bi-weekly Star Wars marathon, airing all six movies in a row.  This is nothing new as it seems like most weekends they do this.  I think they have other programming going on outside of the Star Wars films, but they do air them often. If I was into sports I could go to the Colorado Mammoth (Our Lacrosse team) game and be part of the Star Wars theme night. Seems like one of the stranger promotions for a sporting event, but I know there are those who are geeks and are into sports.  Would be interesting to see just what kind of crowd the event attracted. Now we are watching the Mythbuster Star Wars special. Mythbusters itself is generally entertaining but ti is really cool to have the Star Wars theme added to it. So far is has been enjoyable.  Should be cool to see how it goes. There is no doubt that Star Wars is everywhere.  I can't think of a show set in the late 70s forwards that has gotten

Since I find it easier to say 'Game of Thrones' instead of 'Song of Ice and Fire', I will be referring the the saga as Game of Thrones for this post. I have read the first four novels and seen the first two season of the TV show now.  I am fairly familiar with the on going saga of Game of Thrones. A little while ago I saw someone on Facebook asking why Game of Thrones fans like the saga so much.  I should have read her full post, but was busy at the time.  Most likely she is one of those who has issues with the more intense nature of the stories. I want to make it very clear, Game of Thrones IS NOT FOR EVERYONE. I am enjoying the truly epic saga that is there, but I very much would NOT openly recommend the books or TV show to people. I know some people I think would enjoy it all, but I know many who would dislike it and wonder what was wrong with me for liking it. It is intense and a bit much for many people. You have rape, murder, incest, gore and so much more

I recently finished reading the novel The Princess Bride.  If you are not familiar with the movie based off the novel, then I feel very sorry for you as you are missing out on a truly classic film. In so many ways it is an incredible adaptation of a novel. As the title for this post suggest, it may be the best ever. It is also very much one of the most quoted geek movies ever. The movie really stays incredibly true to the novel, with some changes that just make sense and in the end nothing of the story is lost.  We get a very pure transfer of the story. One element of the novel that could not be transferred however is the odd claims by the author William Goldman that it is not his original story, but an abridged version of an older novel written by fictional author Simon Morgenstern. The novel opens up with a long explanation of why Goldman felt this abridgement was needed and the whole background story behind, with mention of a fictional wife and son (Goldman has two daughters and