Beyond My Geeky Life

While I had my problems with the movie, all in all I liked Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It was enjoyable and had lots of surprises to it. But there are those who do not share my opinion.  There is an on-line petition to have Disney remove the film from being canon and do a new episode 8. And they have gotten over the desired amount of signatures for it. I’m sure someone at Disney or Lucasfilm will make some kind of statement in reply, but not much more. One of my co-workers signed the petition. He was one of the fans like myself who had enjoyed the books and comics that for over two decades had built up an amazing and enjoyable continuation of the Star Wars universe. In talking with him I found it interesting that he actually believed that it had been the plan to adapt those stories into movies. I had to explain to him that even if Lucas was the one doing the new movies, that whole storyline would have been ignored and that Lucas had nothing to do with creating the Expanded U

Earlier this year when Fox started airing commercials for The Orville I was rather unimpressed, but curious. The ads did not really draw me in and gave me no real idea about the show. The humor looked like it was going to fall flat and all in all just not work. I actually was picturing the show to last a few episodes and then fade away. I watched the first episode and it seemed to back up that belief. You could see what it was trying for, but it was missing its mark. The humor all felt forced with an awkwardness I couldn't explain. Yet there was something there that made me want to give it a chance. Episode by episode it has grown better. They seem to have figured out the pacing and how to work the humor into the episodes so it feels natural. Fairly early on the show made it clear it wanted to deal with some serious issues. In their third episode 'About a Girl' they jumped right into some significant moral and societal issues, that did not seem to fit with how the

My story 'Time of the Bursting' has been published in the anthology 'Disharmony of the Spheres: http://nomadicdeliriumpress.com/blog/product/disharmony-of-the-spheres/ It is an anthology of stories that focus on mental illness. This is the most meaningful anthology I have been in. Half the profits from this book will go to the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Organization, a group that battles teen suicide. The following is from the product description. "Mental illness is very common in our society, but it’s also very misunderstood. Many view those with mental illnesses as being weak, but there is a great deal of strength in those that must battle their own minds on a regular basis. Disharmony of the Spheres focuses on characters with mental illnesses that are still able to be successful. They may not completely overcome their illnesses, but they are able to beat them back and succeed."

Note, this post will talk about politics. This is your only warning.  If you keep on reading, it is all on you. I know a writer on Facebook, who for various reason I decided to unfriend. His views were just insulting and often he would say 'no comment zone' when making a political post and delete any comments that were left. Too often these post were as inaccurate as it gets, with no facts to back them up, and obviously you were not allowed to correct him by telling him the facts. I had enough once he tried to compared homosexuals wanting to not be discriminated against with the KKK, which was for me crossing an unforgivable line. However when I wish to see what the other side is saying I check out his page. The other day he had a political cartoon going after Marvel Comics for being 'Social Justice Warriors' along with his rant about how Marvel went downhill after getting political. And I am fine with that, as it is his opinion. Jump a week or so, and I learned t

I was sitting around, feeling like watching something, but no idea what to watch. I went randomly  scrolling through Netfllix to find something. Saw a film I had never heard of starring Simon Pegg and figured that was a good bet. The film was titled Absolutely Anything. Just watching the credits I was already gaining faith in the film. The full surviving cast of Monty Python as the voices of the aliens, written and directed by Terry Jones and with Robin Williams in what would be his final role as the voice of Dennis the dog. Such a huge batch of talent. The story is that aliens have discovered Earth and have decided to judge us. This is done by giving one random person the power to bend reality as he pleases and see how he handles it. They do not inform the individual, just get him the powers and see what happens. So Simon Pegg's character is given the powers and slowly learns he has them. The powers work by doing what they are told do without concern for the intention be

While making out with my girlfriend in a room filled with family pictures, I made the comment about how in the world of Harry Potter, parents most likely do not keep any family photos in their bedroom. She understood what I was saying. When pictures are in a sense a copy of the person's soul, that can interact with you as well as display the full range of emotion, you're gonna be cautious as to what pictures you have in areas where you get intimate or undressed. Family photos in the bedroom, any bedroom really are just not going to be a regular thing and could actually serve as a sign of questionable perversions. Of course if you're into voyeurism, there would be an interesting kink to pictures of yourself by the bedside. This whole idea takes us to some interesting places when it comes to decorating one's house. You would actually do an interview process before buying a piece of art, in order to make sure those in the art are of the proper state of mind for the room

Watched the pilot episode of Star Trek Discovery last night and was rather unimpressed, despite everyone else seeming to claim it to be great television. I'm not a die hard Trekkie, but I generally enjoy Trek. Yet I did not find anything enjoyable about Discovery. I'm going to go through my thought process as I watched the show. First scene we got the Klingons that are not really Klingons. They look nothing at all like Klingons, none of the tech feels like Klingon tech and while I am fairly sure their were speaking Klingon (I don't know the language) they spoke it far softer than every other time we've heard Klingon, even when humans have spoken it, so it didn't sound like Klingon. Everything about these creatures felt like a whole new species. Even the switch from the ST:TOS Klingons to what they became in the movies and into the future series felt more like they could be the same species, as they had a similar feel to them. These new branch of the species has

Been watching Super-Girl this week (just glad that for once they actually got the whole super-person character right for once) and have been enjoying it, thankful that they are avoiding a great deal of the laws that have always made Super-Man an uninteresting character. However, there was one great flaw in the series that is a common flaw in general fiction. So many sci-fi/fantasy prisons just do not work and are so poorly conceived, they become insulting. In Super-Girl, the Kryptonians are so enlightened that have do not have the death penalty. Instead they have a far worse, less humane way to deal with unwanted individuals. They put the criminals in a place called Fort Rozz, which is in the Phantom Zone.  Time does not pass in the Phantom Zone. And we are given the impression that all trips to Fort Rozz are life sentences  with no hope of parole. This basically means the prisoners are held in a place where they are outside of time, not aging, forever. No surprise at all that when

A few years ago Marvel comics did a huge Spider-man event called Spiderverse. As a huge fan of Spider-Man I was excited for it and found it very enjoyable, loving all the ideas of alternate versions of Spider-man as well as making use of all the versions we had seen before in unique, creative ways. I wrote a few posts on it at the time. As a follow up event, Marvel is right now doing Venomverse, which was being promoted to look a lot like Spiderverse. I started regularly reading and collecting Spider-Man right before Venom was introduced, so I have been there since the beginning with him. And while there were aspects I liked of the character, it took them a while to give him real growth, most of the time he was at his best when he was breaking away from the crazed killer mentality, fighting with his duel nature. In recent years they did some drastic changes with the character, curing the alien symbiote of its madness, creating a heroic version of the character called Venom Space Knig

For those of you who check out this blog and do not know, I am a writer. And as a semi-pro I can tell you it is not easy and getting any level of notice feels great. I also know a good amount of other small artists, one of them did a whole video on how to support small artists. Check her video out and check out the Losing Lara channel, as she has a lot of fun geeky stuff there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9hFutS7pEs If any of my readers want to see what I have been up to lately, check out: http://nomadicdeliriumpress.com/blog/product/what-lies-in-the-wastelands/    http://nomadicdeliriumpress.com/blog/product/cant-go-home-again/   http://nomadicdeliriumpress.com/blog/product/where-do-you-go-from-here/ All of them are also available on Amazon, where someone I do not know has left five star reviews for me, which feels real good.

A while back I wrote a review of the book Ready Player One. It will not be long now until we get the movie adaptation. You can see the trailer for it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiK2fhOY0nE I enjoyed the trailer, but was disappointed that it did not give any hint of the story. The action was good and we were given a flood of the visual effects. We are given the most basics of the world. The problem is anyone not familiar with the book will not know what the movie is about. I also found it interesting that most of what we see in the trailer does not appear in the book (unless I am misremembering something). While I loved those scenes, I am wondering how they fit into it all. I have never been a purest when it comes to the source materiel. I've seen great adaptations done that have taken great liberties from the original souces. So that is not bothering me, I just want to see more so I know the story is there. No matter what, Ready Player One will undoubtedly have m

So the big news today is that the 13th Doctor will be Jodie Whittaker ( http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2092886/ ), our first female Doctor. I am binge watching Broadchurch today in order to get familiar with her I have no problem at all with the idea of a woman playing the Doctor, outside of the idea of finding the Doctor attractive, which does feel a little odd after a life time of male Doctors. I am ready to see what direction they take this change and how this alters the dynamics of the series. There is no doubt this is a big change that will attract attention, both positive and negative. Everything I have seen so far personally has been people all for this and ready for a female Doctor. Of course that is the crowd I associate with.  I have heard reports that I do not find surprising, just disappointing, that there has been those who have a negative reaction to this news. Found this pic for anyone looking to read comments about the casting: Regretfully chances are real good t

If you didn't know, I am a bit of a Star Wars fan, and I do a little collecting here and there. I also have an army of R2-D2s And there are more of them in other displays, as well as packed away because I am unable to find room to display them. R2 has always been my favorite character and he is so easy to merchandise. I love it when I run across a new piece that corresponds to me having money (It is annoying how those two have to come together). This last weekend I was at Denver Comic Con, which I always enjoy. As of late for various reason I have not been picking up pieces too often, so I was not going out of my way to look. But on my last trip through the dealers room, I stopped to look at a booth selling Japanese merchandise of all manner. And I found this guy: It is an R2 on a bottle cap. The bottle cap itself does not have any groves on it, so you just place it over the opening. Not sure how they were distributed, as there is not really a practic

Today we see the release of what truly may be about the most anticipated super hero movie ever. Wonder Woman. Anyone who reads this blog knows I am not a DC comics fan. I have never been able to get into their comics (With a handful of exceptions) and rarely find their movies worth seeing. Superman vs Batman is one of the worst, most poorly convinced movies I have ever suffered through. Suicide Squad was...not sure how to describe a movie that empty in story, plot and character. Despite all the praise, I found The Dark Knight lacking, with only the portrayal of the Joker being well done. Which may not saying much, as I find the character of the Joker to be weak at its core.(I may have a future post to write on why the Joker is a poor character in general)  I have not had any desire to see a single DCU film in the theaters due to just how poor they have routinely done with their movies. Yet something about Wonder Woman is making me want to see it in the theaters to learn if it is

While I may have only been 2 at the time 40 years ago when the first film hit theaters, the impact of the event on my life is unmistakable. I do not remember a time before Star Wars, it has always been there as far as I am concerned. Out of all my collecting, none has measure up the my Star Wars collection. It has been where my passion has been the most focused. While I kept a handful of pieces from my childhood, I have been actively working on my Star Wars collection since I was 16 and that is where the bulk of my collection has come from. Both  my boys have grown up surrounded by Star Wars and openly embracing it. My oldest's first words were 'R2' and 'Bacca'. They both were swinging lightsabers as soon as they could hold one. Me as a Jedi at the first Star Wars Celebration Next to the X-Wing fighter at the first Star Wars Celebration I have countless Star Wars related memories from various events and conventions. Waiting in line to see Ge

Last night we got out and saw Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Really enjoyable, well worth seeing, great sequel.  Very much did what a sequel should do in advancing the over all story line that had been started in the first film. This post is not about Guardians of the Galaxy though. One enjoyable aspect of seeing films in the theater for me is the trailers. Had some good ones and some not so good ones. I was already looking forwards to Spider-Man homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Star Wars episode 8. I'm still unsure about Wonder Woman. Have no desire to see The Mummy, mostly becasue of Tom Cruise(Any more his name is something that keeps me away from a film). Saw my first glimpse at the new Kingsmen movie, and it has promise. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets looks good. Then we got Transformers:The Last Knight. The Transformers movie series was not that good to start with after you get over the flash of it all and what you thought was a coolness of seeing the Tran

My son and I were out doing some Pokemon hunting today.  We got talking about how the Remoraid (A sardine like fish style Pokemon) makes no sense at all to evolve into a Octillery (Basically an octopus like Pokemon). It is the kind of thing that makes it very clear the creators of Pokemon were on drugs while watching Animal Planet when they came up with most of these creatures and their evolutions. We went through most of the Pokemon and made judgement calls as to how much sense the evolutions made. I think less than half of them really looked right. The creators clearly didn't care at all about logic or study nature when they came up with most of them. They have a basic teddy bear somehow turning into a monster grizzly bear with nothing more than them being bears connecting them, as they physically are clearly not the same species. There is a fat flying rabbit/squirrel then somehow becomes a ferret. Seriously, WTF were they on? And of course if you get enough gold fish (Known

Good friend of mine and fellow Blogger, Mr. Smith , has drawn my attention to a Round Robin Blog Challenge that he has participated in.     This week's challenge is called Two Great Tastes That Are Great Together. This challenge is actually an easy one for me, as the topic I am going to talk about is one I was planning on doing. DC Comic has been doing a He-Man and Thundercats limited series crossover event. I was going to wait until the series finished up to write about it, but it fits this challenge too well. The series starts off with Mumm-ra and the Spirits of Evil working on a plan to find a way defeat the Thundercats by acquiring a weapon more powerful than the Sword of Omens. They are able to move Third Earth to the orbit of Eternia during a coming of age ceremony for Prince Adam. Of course all chaos break loose. I'm not going to go much into the details of the storyline, as right away things get interesting and I don't want to spoil it for anyone. Just t

It is always interesting to watch something from your childhood and see how it lives up to your memories. I've had a mixture of such experiences.  Something actually have gotten better and work on a whole different level that I didn't realize as a child.  Many have aged well and are just as enjoyable now as they were decades ago.  Some of it I can see how bad it is, but I can appreciate the corniness of it due to when it was made and the various elements that might have limited the production. Then you find something that was horrible back then and is still undeniably horrible now. Today I just rewatched the live action film version of Masters of the Universe for the first time in thirty years. I only watched it once all the way through when I was young and didn't remember it well. It didn't draw me in and from what I could remember it was bad all around. Well, it is still just as bad. And bad on every level. Some bad movies can be enjoyable, with a corniness th

The next movie in the X-Man film franchise is to be Huge Jackman's last time playing Wolverine. This is his third solo Wolverine movie. The first was a true flop and the second was good, but felt to be missing something. A few month ago we got this trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny3hScFgCIQ , for the third movie simply titled Logan. I was at a full lose of words when I saw it for the first time and it still has not grown old. It is a powerful trailer than does everything needed to get you interested in the movie. And the music pick is beyond brilliant. They just released a new trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH3OxVFvTeg , and it works, but it was never going to be able to match that first one. The first trailer is worth watching over and over again. It tells a story that you want to know more about. It makes you care about the characters. And the music just fits the character of Wolverine. Could this be a case where the trailer is more worth watching th

Recently I was able to acquire all three sets that make up the complete series of Disney's Gargoyles from the mid 90s. I loved the series when it first aired and caught all the episodes back then.  However this as the first time I was able to watch the full series for start to finish. It has aged well and is actually better than a lot of the popular cartoons out now. Gargoyles is the story of a clan of gargoyles, who are stone by day and flesh by night. It ran for three years as part of the Disney Afternoon programing.  Unlike most of the other Disney Afternoon cartoons, Gargoyles featured all new characters and told an on going story.  Most of the other shows with Disney Afternoon were basically half hour long Disney cartoons, based on already known Disney characters, that reset after every episode. From the get go it was clear that Gargoyles had a story line and a history that mattered throughout. The world of Gargoyles is interesting. It is modern day New York for the mos

Opening weekend for it we got out and saw Fantastic beasts and Where to Find Them. While I enjoy the Harry Potter universe, I am not a huge die hard fan of it. As I wrote in a previous post here Cursed Child was disappointing. I also have issues with a fair amount of not too well thought out aspects of the original seven book storyline. I understand why it is a fun series and why so many people enjoy it, but I too often felt it was overrated and that many fans tried to turn the series into something greater than it was. The original eight movies were fun, but too much suffered from the same problems of the books with the added lose of story that is too often seen when turning a book into a movie. I did enjoy them though for the level they were. So as usual I gave that background of my feelings for what has come before to help put my views on the new movie in perspective. I though Fantastic Beast was the perfect way to reintroduce the franchise. Movie studios need to take a note f

If you've been reading my blog, then you know I am a big Marvel comics fan and I have a thing for $1 comics. The other day I hit up the $1 comics and picked out a batch of The New Defenders from the mid-80s First issue I read was 148. It was just horrible. I have no idea why this comic got written or approved for publication. I think it is supposed to be a murder mystery, but you really don't care in the least about anything that happens in it. It is so boring and pointless that the murder in it just seems to be there to be there.  And all the 'clues' are just put there to have clues for the sack of having clues. The Defenders themselves are completely unneeded for any aspect of the story and are just hanging out because it is their book. Of course none of the character seem to need to be there, as many are thrown in suddenly just because the writer needed more characters to have more characters in the story. I also think it was supposed to be a humorous story a