Past, Present and Future

I need more

It was another visit to Chapters last week and another haul of new books - some from their bargain bin. It's amazing what you can find when you take your time and really look at what they have on their clearance shelves. The first book that I've finished was part of the Doctor Who hardback series based on the new Doctor Who characters. The one I chose would only be of interest to those of you that have kept up with the series and know what is going on - the rest of you - sorry. The book 'The Story of Martha' is a condensed version of her year traveling the Master dominated Earth. Obviously written for a teenage audience, it is still a fairly good read for us adult and young-at-heart fans who follow the adventures of this rather odd time traveler known as The Doctor. The stories (several authors) mesh quite well and give us some new, albeit short, glimpses of adventures unknown. My only real gripe with the book is that it is far too short. I would loved to have seen a huge 1000 page tome detailing the trials and tribulations of Martha Jones as she travels across a ruined Earth and spreading 'the word'. Unfortunately, the book is of a standard length to fit nicely on the shelf with my other Dr. Who books - pity. In general the stories in the series of books are very good and provide nice additional episodes to the Doctor Who universe. The quality is 'spotty' though and there are some real dogs. I think I have found a few good ones and mainly listen to them as audio books. If you are a Who fan then it's worth your while to check these out. New TV episode around Easter - I can't wait.

Still a winner - or is that a wiener?

It was another gaming weekend for me and my young nephew and another successful winning weekend as well. On his second visit to Tabscon he won a solitaire game of Rommel's WWII campaigns and I won a copy of 'Spanish Eagles', a game of the Peninsular War and 'Combat Commander: Pacific', a game on the (duh!) Pacific war. We played a game on the Nazi invasion of the Crimea in 1941/42 and had a rare old time of cavalry charges, artillery bombardments, remote-controlled demolition tanks, assault boats racing towards the shore and multiple Soviet seaborne invasions. All-in-all a real free for all fight with both sides attacking and defending. I sold some old games and swapped for some games I wanted. I snagged a copy of the original Avalon Hill Blitzkrieg - 44 years old and still a terrific game. The real attraction was the opportunity to meet old and new friends in a very congenial atmosphere of competition. If you have any interest at all in board games then THIS is the place to be. If anyone wants to learn about playing the wargame side of things, let me know, I will be happy to teach. I recently had one of the guys over and we played a game on the Vietnam War - very interesting. It was a very well constructed and designed game and really gave a good view of the differences between the Vietcong way of war and the US addiction to firepower and concentration of forces. Currently, I'm gaming out the Russo-Finish War of 1939 and finding that it wasn't quite as one-sided as I thought.

' I can't do that, Dave'

I'm still stuck in the '70's watching movies that I never watched then. The other day it was 'Colossus: The Forbin Project' released in 1970. From what I understand, this wasn't a particular blockbuster of a film as it didn't contain any well known names and was rather an obscure and odd title. If you are familiar with the HAL 9000 and the Skynet of Terminator fame, then Colossus is the grand original that they came from. It's actually quite a gripping story, well acted and very chilling in places. The rather scary thing is, we lose to the machines. It amazes me, that even using 1970's technology, humans are easily manipulated using their own fears and paranoia. The scenario would be even easier to envisage now with the ubiquitous spread of technology into every corner of our lives. Tales of computers dominating us and using us as brute workers and servitors is not new and, to be honest, is a very likely consequence of our development of AI in computer science. The question is, when does AI become self-awareness? Humans may become just a nuisance to our mechanical overlords much as we appear in the story 'The Men in the Walls' by William Tenn. The real scary thing is that some people may prefer machines to take over and tell us what to do 'for our own good'. After all, with the increases in simulated inteligence, they may indeed know what is best for us. We may yet hear the cries of 'exterminate!' and 'delete!' from our mechanical masters.

My eyes hurt!

There are some sci-fi films that I have always meant to see, but never did. I rectified that the other day by watching that cheesy 1974 flick 'Zardoz' starring James Bond - oops! I mean Sean Connery. Since that film, Mr. Connery made further forays into the sci-fi and fantasy world including 'Outland', which was just 'High Noon' in space and the wonderful 'Time Bandits'. For some reason, I never got to see the rather strange and weird 'Zardoz' when it was released and, to be honest, I'm not sure if I missed anything. Seeing Connery in a very brief costume may do something for the ladies and some men, but not me. You can see that the film was made on a shoestring and the special effects (such as there are) are fairly basic. The acting is so-so and the general effect is of a stage play brought to the big screen. Obviously Mr. Bond needed some work after working for Universal Exports. It's certainly a film that you have to watch carefully as it's easy to miss a vital part of the story. The ending is suitably enigmatic and raises as many questions as answers. As with many films of it's type and time, there are the self absorbed and 'arty' type moments and many hidden meanings and sly hints of more depth that we see. The story itself, of a post-apocalyptic world where you see the 'haves' and the 'have not's' at odds with each other, is not unique and has been worked on many times before and since. The nature of the new dark age is not specified, but seems like a gradual fall from grace rather than an all out devastating sudden end. Obviously, just like many stories of this nature, it tries to serve as a warning to humanity. Watching this film was a bit like watching a train wreck - you can't look away. Enjoyable? I suppose it is in a rather odd way. I DO suggest you see it if you haven't, just to say you have. It won't hurt too much and may give you some bragging rights in a game of Trivial Pursuit.

Just visiting

I'm just about half way through my latest read, 'The Coming' by Joe Haldeman and published in paperback in 2001. It uses a very tried and true premise that the aliens are on their way and details the reaction to that 'threat'. To be honest though, this book is more in the way of showing a future where global warming and climate change have subtly altered the geography and where the world seems on the brink of blowing itself to perdition (again). It's the old story of hoping that outside intervention will stop us from self-destructing - be it aliens or angels. I'm also re-reading 'Footfall' by the Nevin and Pournelle duo, which also shows the aliens arriving - however, not with good results. I often wonder why any alien culture would take the time to come here - after all, we use atomic weapons on ourselves! I would think that we are probably quarantined as a mad bunch of semi-intelligent ape descendants. If there are other space-faring societies out there, then where the heck are they? I would think that until a race has the ability to travel vast distances quickly at little cost, then they would not spend the resources to come to our little backwater planet on a whim. The premise of 'V' was that they came all the way here as we provided food for a hungry bunch of lizards - I can't see that really - it's silly. Would they come here to exchange information - what would WE have that could possibly interest a race that could straddle the stars as easily as we straddle our planet? However, the wish fulfillment that is sci-fi can bedazzle, frighten and enthrall us with all sorts of impossible possibilities and we should celebrate that. At least we should be ready when the aliens actually arrive..

Rot in Hell!

This is more in the fashion of a open letter to the selfish git that did this to my son's car. He has only had the vehicle a month and had his windows tinted last Tuesday and this had to happen. I know that accidents can and do happen, however this swine that did this decided to just drive away leaving a mess behind. Even though insurance will pay for this disaster, it will still cost him $1000 as a deductible. This is an intolerable cost for a hard working 21-year old and will cause real difficulties - there goes the vacation he promised himself. To the bugger that did this, 'you are a low, nasty and obnoxious individual who will have to live with this selfish act'. However, I have a solution that may help matters a little. If you don't have the guts to own up, then just leave an envelope on my door with $1000 in it to cover the deductible. It's probably not a good idea to actually introduce yourself as I wouldn't be accountable for the result. What is most annoying, is that we have all parked on the road overnight with no ill effects before. The one night that the Mazda is there is the one time something happens. Typical!