| Some thoughts on Michael Jackson |
[Jun. 26th, 2009|09:49 am] |
The first time I remember the gloved one coming on my radar was in my computer literacy class. For some reason Ms Pratt showed "Thriller" and the making of video. It was interesting but the zombies actually made it hard to eat my pizza boat afterward. I was listening WSHE ("SHE's only rock and roll") which was the album oriented rock station which played Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and new stuff like the Smiths and Simple Minds. I was not converted over by the King of Pop and remained a loyal rock/alternative/whatever non pop is called.
Actually my next notable memory with Jackson had to with Miami radio. WSHE had a rival in the late 80s and early 90s, WGTR. WGTR was playing the same music as WSHE but all CD. They even took SHE's wacky morning men Herman and McBean. Then one summer GTR was sold and restructured. I found out about the change while driving and hearing "Man in the Mirror" on GTR. I realized there was something wrong immediately changed to WSHE.
Jackson was brought up in my intro to Forensics class (a requirement for the computer forensics program). The teacher was into current event and brought up Jackson's arrest that which I heard on the radio. The teacher pointed out that the DAs were being goofy when the announced their indictments. I agreed that my teacher was right and felt that the DAs deserved to lose for not putting a good case together.
Overall I think Steve Barnes summed it up in his blog. A great talent who went goofy. His sound was not my cup of teas but he was to billions and I feel bad for them, except for that lady with the doves at the trial.
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| Birthday |
[Mar. 15th, 2009|12:23 pm] |
I decided to start the day off with a bike ride. It was for Gear up for Education. As the link says they were trying to break the world record for a bike parade. Not sure if they accomplished it or not. I could not find an update. Then on to downtown to meetup with Patty for breakfast and see the Jim Henson exhibit at the Orange County Historical Center. Patty ran a bit behind so I grabbed some food for both of us and meet her at the museum. Parking was insane due to a charity walk at Lake Eola. Patty and I checked out the exhibit. I got to show off my knowledge of all things Henson. They had classic muppets like Bert,Ernie, Mahnamahna and the Snowths. They also had tapes of Henson's early commercials and props from The Dark Crystal. I bought a poster of Super Grover drawn by Alex Ross. It turns out that night the museum was having a presentation of The Muppet Movie. They were doing it as a sing along led by Henson's daughter and local Orlando resident Heather Henson. Patty bought me a ticket for it. I went back home changed for church. After church went to the Barnes and Noble and checkout the lastest issue of Doctor Who Magazine. The are a lot of good classic Doctor Who DVDs coming down the pike next year. I got to to movie presenatation. The only complaint I had was that it was a bit cramped whre they showed the film. They gave everybody and songbook and stuff like pop guns and bubbles to use during the movie. They were Rocky Horroring the movie, althought it was cleaner than Rocky Horror. The Muppet Movie holds up very well. Henson's and company humor never goes out of style. When I was watching it, I noticed Kermit was riding a single speed hybrid bicycle. This the type of bike which seems to be popular in downtown Orlando. After the film I went to Independent Bar. I was going to stay long at first but endded up staying till 3AM. The only odd thing during the night the vegetarian hot cart never showed up. I got to talk to some people I had not seen in awhile. I asked a couple of people how they felt about Megacon. I also got to play with an iPhone to check up on my email (I had not been on my house since 3:30PM). The iPhone is cute but why would I give up my phone which looks like a classic Star Trek communicator. At the end of the night talk to Tom, Margaret, Christina about the The Godfather, how I brought a restaurant to hush when discussing Rosemary's Baby at a book group dinner, vegan restaurants and about mutual friends. All and all a good BDay.
PS I had to proofread this myself and I was in abit of a hurry. I apologize for any mistakes
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| What 80s character are you? |
[Mar. 3rd, 2009|06:12 pm] |
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| | The Philips File (radio talk show) | ] |
As flawed as the early version of this show was this still made my day.
Your result for The 80s Cartoon Personality Test...
Superfriends!You scored 50 Aggression and 40 Silliness! 
You're Superfriends!! DC Comic book legends Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman and Aquaman, along with their new comrades Marvin, Wendy and Wonder Dog, are called to "fight injustice..."
You take your job seriously. You never let your personal issues get in the way of your work. Sometimes, you take things a little too seriously. Still, when push comes to shove, everyone's going to want you in their corner because you're so good at fighting for what you believe in. Keep it up!
Take The 80s Cartoon Personality Test at HelloQuizzy
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 25th, 2009|10:54 am] |
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This was interesting but like all of these quizzes not all the answer fit right.
| What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more. | | Literate Good Citizen | | | Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm | | | Fad Reader | | | Book Snob | | | Non-Reader | | What Kind of Reader Are You?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz |
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| Writer's Block: Doctor Who? |
[Jan. 7th, 2009|09:52 pm] |
I was going for Paterson Joseph. I thought his performance as the Maquis in Neverwhere was Doctor-like.
Steven Moffat who is an experience producer and award winning writer casted Matt Smith and that is good enough for me. I always felt this role was always well casted. Once we see Smith's second episode all of our doubts will be forgotten.
I think David Tennant summed it up right that the transition time is an anxious and exciting time. We say goodbye to old friend and wait to see a new friend. That how it was like the first time this happened to me when Tom Baker left and Peter Davison came in.
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| 2008 |
[Dec. 31st, 2008|10:35 pm] |
It was a year of ups and downs. Then again, what year isn't it.
Best moment was having David Gerrold and and Adam-Troy Castro high five each other after a very funny joke about cats that look like Hitler during a panel at OASIS.
Also I enjoyed working with everybody at OASIS. I hope I can do a good job and keep this puppy going for a few more years. We have a good team.
There was no really big downer moment of the year for me personally. I felt bad that my friend Patty lost her job as Children's librarian but she got another librarian job at the end of the year. Next would be some unexpected but manageable house and car repairs.
I liked all the films that came out in May which includes Iron Man, Speed Racer, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The Dark Knight was also good. Wall-E was the best American animated film. Best non genre films were Milk and Frost Nixon.
This year I got addicted to watching House. Doctor Who was great as always. Catherine Tate was a great companion.
Best book Was The Halting State by Charles Stross. Close runner up would be The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Micheal Chabon.
The Sisters of Mercy had the best concert becuase this time I knew were Sunday Night Vinyl remote was at. I do miss Sunday Night Vinyl to go.
Thanks to Patty Russell and Dave Plesic for getting me through the year.
Best wishes for 2009.
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| Retro Review - Tron |
[Dec. 21st, 2008|08:46 pm] |
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Below the cut is a Retro Review of Tron. This was in the December 2008 of the Event Horizon, the newsletter of the Orlando SF Society.
( Read more... )
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| Retro Review - Labyrinth |
[Dec. 21st, 2008|08:41 pm] |
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Below the cut is a Retro Review of Labyrinth. This was in the December 2008 of the Event Horizon, the newsletter of the Orlando SF Society.
( Read more... )
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| Writer's Block: Gone but Not Forgotten |
[Dec. 5th, 2008|05:07 pm] |
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| | The Philips File (radio talk show) | ] |
Buffy and MST3K had good runs and left at the right time.
Angel prematurely ended. I heard there was some back stage nonsense which ended the show. It should gone as long as Buffy.
I did not get into Firefly until the film came out. The only episode I saw before that was the shindig one. I caught up with the series during a SF Channel marathon. It had a lot of potential. It was one of the best space shows since Babylon 5.
I wish they had not ended Veronica Mars on a cliffhanger. It was Buffy without the overt fantasy.
I liked the direction Enterprise was going in the last season. These were the type of stories they should have been telling on day one.
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| Weekend November 21-23 |
[Nov. 23rd, 2008|08:30 pm] |
Got to start committing long weekends to the blogosphere.
It really started on Thursday. I got free passes to see Bolt. I went to see it with Dave. Dave had not seen the trailers, so he was in for a surprise since the first 10 minutes of the film were completely misleading. Then I treated for dinner at Dennys since I did not get Dave anything for his birthday which was the day after the election. It turned out I lost my phone. I tried to look for it in the theater but I could not find it. They staff found it later that night.
On Friday after work I went to the theater and from their to Kissimmee to set up the OASFiS table for Mugglecon. This was a chore since they were opposite from each other. There was a traffic jam on I4 east, so I took a bunch of backroads to get to Sand Lake. After some more misdirection, I got to the Ramada in Kissimmee. I learned that I4 is the most straightforward route to the Ramada. I dropped the table stuff and paid my admission. I talked to the people there. It was fun but I left early to catch something on TV before heading to bed.
Saturday, I got up early to do a grocery run. This included candy for the table. After eating breakfast I hit the road for Mugglecon. Got there a bit early and worked on some OASIS business. The con was small but fun. Talked to some interesting people. I am really interested in reading Twilight. There were a variety of opinions on it. Now I really want to see what all the fuss is about. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) wasabiguy made some interesting points about fiction. The idea of pop fiction is intriguing and deserves some pondering.
Around 4:45 PM, I packed up to head to White Wolf for the Sci Fi light book group. I got some flyers for OASIS to the comic book store near the restaurant. The dinner was fun. I did not finish the book, Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay, but I want to see how it ends.
Then I went to Cricketer Arms for the Hurricane Who party. Former Doctor Who script editorTerrance Dicks was the invited guest. I made it in time for the talk. Jarrod Cooper did a good job interviewing Dicks. I asked Dicks if he ever tried to recruit prose science fiction writers to write for Doctor Who. Dicks tried to hire Brain Aldiss but it did not workout. Dicks mentioned the difficulty for book writers writing scripts and vice versa. Afterwards I talked to the people there. Fun all the way around.
Afterwards I tried to get to downtown but it was more chaotic than usual so I went home.
Sunday I caught up on some recorded TV and went to see Happy Go Lucky at the Enzian (a sweet little film).
Its Doctor Who's 45 anniversary and Erik Dennison is playing "Doctor in the TARDIS". Perfect.
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| Screamfest aka Spooky Empire |
[Oct. 22nd, 2008|09:04 pm] |
Went to checkout Screamfest aka Spooky Empire. My friend Dave was going to it. He is more of a horror fan that I am. Dave thought I hated horror. I just hate endings where everybody gets screwed at the end. Rosemary's Baby is a perfect example of this. I need some kind of victory.
Anyway the convention was fun. I could not stay long on Saturday due two commitments I had. My time was quality versus quality at the convention. The convention is working on the Megacon model. The only difference is that there is a VIP membership which was more than three times the regular membership. I talked to a couple of the VIP holders and they seemed happy. They got advance seating, advance placement in autograph lines and admission to exclusive parties.
I can only think of two negative things. Putting the panel room next to the movie room was bad. The panelist were having to fight over the noise. The other thing was that Jason Mews did not do a Q&A.
The good things about the con are as follows.
- Hanging out with Dave
- Seeing people I usually do not see at conventions. Some I had not seen in awhile.
- Maclom McDowell's Q&A. He was like I expected. I heard McDowell could go off if he heard a goofy question. He did but I do not think he cross any lines. McDowell told a great story how Kubrick had him stuck with a syringe during A Clockwork Orange.
- Nick Roche doing Horror Jeopardy. The questions were really good. I may steal a whole category from him. He also let me put OASIS flyers on his table.
- The panels. The few they had were actually pretty good. I may have some ideas for the OASIS horror panel. I also got meet some intresting indie filmmakers.
- Zombie walk. Nice seeing people have fun stumbling around as the undead.
A nice if crazy weekend.
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| Necronomicon Day Two and Three |
[Oct. 12th, 2008|08:24 pm] |
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Had way too much fun this weekend.
The first panel I went to was Florida Unreal Estate. This panel was about SF and Fantasy stories set in Florida. This was especially interesting to me since I am reading the Travis McGee novels by John D. MacDonald, who did some SF. I would really like to look into William Mize's and Lynn Hanson's works. Then I went to see Rick Wilber's interview Frederik Pohl. Pohl explained his current medical situation which makes it hard to sign clearly. Pohl was great and hopefully he will be to update his biography. Then I went to the Dystopian Film panel. There were some interesting points there such as the difference between a post apocalypic society and dystopia. The former has soceity which has ceased functioning. Then I took a break and wandered in the dealers room. Then to the trivia contest. Many of the old suspects were there. I was on the red team and I cam eup with our name the Red Scare. Louis and Richard were on my team. Louis was on one of my past superteams. Mark, Dean, and Perry did a great job putting the contest together. They go for the moon and pull it off. There was video and audio portions. Our team won but it was a challenge. I bought a copy of The Last Colony and a long sleeve con shirt with my winnings. I went to the poetry panel but I started to crash their and unfortunately it was noticed. I went to grab some Chinese and had a nice talk with Mark, Necro's trivia master. Then I went to the Masquerade. There were great costumes both in and out of the contest. I saw a Ceasar Romero (with mustache) and Heth Ledger (with voice) Joker. There were a lot of steampunk costumes. There was a young lady who did a great Queen Susan (Pevinse). She did a great job recreating the quiver. Some of the young adults did an Addams Family skit complete with Thing. Mark Jones steampunk team did a great job. The prototype of Mark's costume was made at OASIS 21. Then to OASIS 22 party. Fun was had by all. I need to learn how to schmoze and not give a sales pitch to everyone who comes in. Stil the party had a great vibe. Steve did a great job. When the party wound down I went to check the NecroProm. I dance for one song. Then talked with some local fans with Steve Grant. The conversation was so good I almost missed the midnight sex panel. Gor, Philip Jose Farmer, and the Anita Blake series were some of the topics discussed. Then went to bed.
I got up aroung 6:30am. I moved my car into the hotel paking lot and then went to church. I got back and help Steve and Arthur move stuff to our cars so we could checkout of the hotel. The Steve and I went to the Science Mythbusters. Some things looked into were the use of difibulators on television, nitrogen in tires, conservation of momentum and death in the vacuum of space. Then there was the building character panel. There were some interesting bits there. Then went to talk to Glennis and bought The Green and the Gray by Timothy Zahn. Then had a quick word with Anne Morris. Then I went to Where has the Fandom Gone panel. It was interesting. There was a lot of stories of great fannish incidents. Unfortunately I was crashing a bit. Then got Arthur and we headed back. I took the wrong turn on 275 and we took the scenic route to Orlando.
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| Necronomicon Day One |
[Oct. 11th, 2008|09:37 am] |
The day started chaotic. I could not find my cell. Turned out it was at work. After taking care of pre-con errands, I hit the road with Arthur Dykeman. The hotel directions were a bit confusing since it was near the center of town i.e. streets had the same number but different directions.
The hotel is nice. Everything is on the first floor. Consuite is on the 15th floor. I went to the dealers room and had a nice chat with Glennis LeBlanc. Then I went to the art show. There was some really great stuff there. I went to a panel on the state of the anime industry done by two gentlemen from Metrocon. This was very informative. Then I went to a panel on the new TV season and new films by Michael Hinman and Michelle (I cannot remember her last name and I don't have my program book). This was a bit crazy but fun. The I got some Chinese food with Steve Grant. Then I went to the ice cream social. I had a talk with Julie Czerneda about Starlog, Trek, Carla Ulbrich and Tuckerization. Then I went to a panel on Gay Issues in Fandom which that Michael Hinman was on. This was followed by a fan fic panel. Then I went up to print up some flyers for the OASIS 22 party tomorrow. Then I had a talk with Michael Hinman. Then I went to the consuite for refreshement and conversation. Then to bed.
I went to what is left of the Clearwater apparition and then did my bike ride on the Causeway. Today panels, party and trivia.
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| Orlando Sci Fi Expo |
[Aug. 13th, 2008|10:39 pm] |
My con report of Orlando Sci Fi Expo for the Event Horizon, newsletter of the Orlando Area SF Society.
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| Little Brother |
[Aug. 13th, 2008|10:33 pm] |
My review of Little Brother for the Event Horizon, newsletter of the Orlando SF Society.
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| Middleman Review |
[Aug. 13th, 2008|10:27 pm] |
My review of The Middleman for the Event Horizon, newsletter of the Orlando Area SF Society
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| Denver Day 7 |
[Aug. 11th, 2008|03:16 pm] |
Hmm. I could not post at the Denver International Airport. The text window for the entry would not appear but the ads for the airport would stay.
Sunday started with the Ecumenical Service. It was run by Rev. Randy Smith and Rev. Michael Burgess. Rev. Burgess did the sermon. He gave us the option of using The Dark Knight and Honor Harrington Sermon. Honor Harrignton was picked. It was good. It got his point across about the need for heroes.
Went to three panels:
- Doctor, Doctor, Who's the Best Doctor? - I came late to this. So did not take notes but will try to piece together for a summary for my report.
- Arthur C. Clarke: In Memorium
- Heinlein: The Hugo Years
Then went to the closing ceremonies. It was short and sweet. Then went to Volunteers and helped out for a bit. I took the leftover volunteer T-Shirts to the con offices. Then had a dinner with members of my Austrailian tour group the exotics. Then to the Dead Dog party. I ate and talk to Tom Galloway and others. Then I decided to crash for an early morning flight. |
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| Denver Day 6 |
[Aug. 10th, 2008|08:52 am] |
While waiting to open up volunteers, I remembered that I wanted Ed Bryant to sign my book. I went back to the Sheraton and came back. I hung out an dealers room bought a few things and renewed my Locus subscription. Tried to watch the Venture Brothers at the Press Office to kill time but the connection made it choppy. Then went to wait in line. I waited in the Bujold line which stretched through the exhibit hall. I was 5 or 6 in line for that. Then I was the first for George RR Martin. Chris Barkley gave me a book to get signed by Martin. I then got my Ellison/Bryant collaboration signed. After Martin did two panels:
- The Best Panel Ever - Joe Haldeman, Connie Willis, Mike Resnick, Dave Zindell talking about there highs and lows being writer such as best/worst panels signings etc.
- Comics to Screen - This seemed a bit off since only one panelist seemed to be into films and comics.
Then went to see a very rough cut of the new Star Trek:Phase II (fomerly known as Star Trek New Voyages) "Blood and Fire". Its odd seeing a work in production with missing music and effects. It was OK but I think sticking Klingons in the script seemed unecessary. I had to leave it early to catch the Hugos.
I got a seat but not in the aisle. The aisle gives me some light to take notes. It was a good ceremony. It was cool Scalzi got the fan award. I love Whatever. I was shocked that a well respected fan thought Scalzi came off snobby oin the blog. Then again said person has never met Scalzi. Its is also cool that Chabon won the Big One. A Pulitzer Prize winner who loves genre literature and respects the genre awards. Hopefully he will talk about the Hugos in his piece on All Things Considered today.
After the Hugos went back to the Sheraton and watched the last of Be Forever Yamato and then to party. I introduced myself to Toni Weisskopf to give her a face to the emails. I gave her a breakdown of some of the things about OASIS. Then I went to bed.
Today a few panels, closing and tear down. |
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| Denver 5 Addendum |
[Aug. 9th, 2008|10:30 am] |
Just got the the con special Masquerade & Site Voting Newsletter.
Start saving your pennies for Melbourne in 2010. No Guest of Honor announced used.
More Costume Info:
- Best Workmanship in Novice: War Machine based on Iron Man series from Marvel Comics.
- The young lady in my Den was "The Calm Before Storm"
- Loren's entry was "Elvish Armor"
More later. |
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| Denver Day 5 |
[Aug. 9th, 2008|08:39 am] |
Somehow I went to way more panels than I anticipated. The list as is as follows:
- SF as a Forum for Questioning Social Norms
- We Pick the Panel, Audience Pick the Topic
- Lois McMaster Bujold GOH speech
- Worldcon Fiction: Books Set at Worldcon
Then went to checkout the Dealers Room. Bumped into to Richard and Nicki Lynch. Then we bumped into an old fan who has some ties with Orlando. May have found a possible new dealer out of that. Then I went to report for Masquerade Den Mom Duty. The green room was out of sight. The Colorado Convention Center has a lot of big acts going through there. There was a Tori Amos autographed poster which I would have killed for. There were several smaller dressing rooms as well as main area where food was available. There were 31 entries notable entries include:
- Graverobbers - Two lovely ladies being chased by two large and well designed dinosaurs. Won Best in Show Workmanship (my Den)
- Jadis the White Witch - good costumer, and an embarassing story of me trying to find a hook in her dress which put the green room to laughter
- Beast of Arrgh from Monty Python and The Holy Grail
- Jack Skellington and a Ghoul from The Nightmare before Christmas
- A cute Black Dalek who I escorted back to the hotel
- A lovely young lady had a very good rainbow gown which won an award (my Den)
- Loren Damewood, a Florida fan won an award for his chain mail
- Barbarella and the Angel (done by Frank Wu) which won a ton of awards
- Interplanet Janet defending Pluto's right to be called a planet
There were more but I can't remember the name or due a description justice right now. Check the Worldcon or International Costumers Guild for more info. Got my con book signed by Toastmaster Wil McCarthy and Artist GOH Rick Sternbach will waiting for the judges. The Masquerade crew was great. Nice talking to Kirsten Manning about our first meeting. Just a fun time by all.
Then I checkout some parties including :Nippon07/Anticipation, WSFA, Reno in 2011, Seattle in 2011, and a George RR Martin theme party with man himself. Then to bed.
Today the Hugos and autographs. |
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bouncy