Or, if you prefer, Robert. So why do people keep calling me "John"?

...a clip from the PBS TV show "Square One":

I found this video of this guy performing Daft Punk's "Something About Us" entirely alone (with some help from his laptop) pretty impressive:



On a side note, Daft Punk is apparently scoring the upcoming Tron movie.

Seeing how it's December, I've compiled a list of novels I finished reading this year. (There's a lot I start, but never finish. Usually I get about two chapters in and set the book aside for a few hours which stretch into whatever-interval-it-is-between-then-and-now.) I've tried to list them in the order I read them, but they're probably a little out of order.


The Girl in the Golden Atom (Ray Cummings)
Fantasy/sci-fi from 1920, Cummings' first novel. Unfortunately, he may have peaked here. Read it online at Project Gutenberg.

The Princess of the Atom (Ray Cummings)
Cummings' obsession with tiny atom-people continues. Not a sequel, just repeats a lot of the themes of the earlier book.

Spacehounds of IPC (E. E. "Doc" Smith)
Standard 30's space opera, with a bit Robinson Crusoe thrown in.

The Humanoids (Jack Williamson)
I was already familiar with the short story to which this was a sequel, so I thought I knew which direction the story was going. I was completely wrong. I can't say I really enjoyed it, but it was interesting. Surprising degree of moral ambiguity for a book of its era.

Forbidden Planet (W. J. Stuart)
Some interesting differences with the film, but the movie's better.

Simulacron 3 (Daniel F. Galouye)
Early simulated-world story from the 60's. Pretty interesting. The plot twist in the middle can be seen a mile away (by a modern reader, at least), but it's given away on the back cover anyway.

The Black Cloud (Fred Hoyle)
Hard science fiction story about a dust cloud in space that could doom the earth. Once again, the back cover kinda gives the most interesting plot development away.

Outlaw World (Edmond Hamilton)
40's pulp sci-fi. Space pirates! Hollow planet! Terrifying superweapon! Exclamation points! I've missed you, Captain Future.

Planets in Peril (Edmond Hamilton)
The most epic-scaled Captain Future story I've read so far. The twist ending (which, yeah, you can see coming from the first couple chapters) thinks way too highly of the hero. Still, the fact there is a twist at the end shows more forethought than many similar stories of the era have.

Interesting Times (Terry Pratchett)
The first Discworld novel I've read. First third is the funniest. (Hex is hilarious.) I can say now it's not the best of the series to start with.

Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks (David Whitaker)
First Doctor Who book I've read, and I believe it was the first written. Mostly based on the second Doctor Who story on TV. Not a lot to say about it, really.

Guards! Guards! (Terry Pratchett)
This would have been the better Discworld novel to start with. The best of those I've read so far.

The Colour of Magic (Terry Pratchett)
Pratchett's first Discworld novel, and the weakest of those I've read. The books work better as satire than parody.

Thief of Time (Terry Pratchett)
Convoluted.

Saw Wall-E last week. It was really good. Some movies are enjoyable when first watching them, but when you think back not long afterwards, they don't seem nearly as good. (The Star Wars prequels come to mind.) Others stay the same. But this was one of those few that seem to actually improve. It's probably the same with a lot of Pixar movies. It's also probably the first machine-in-love story that I thought actually worked. (Sorry Adam Link, Helen O'Loy.)

Surreal experience of the day: Seeing the Skull and Crossbones waved during a Fourth of July celebration.

A year ago, most scientists would have said that the Grand Canyon was 6 million years old or so. Then a month ago, evidence was found that aged it at 17 million. Now it apparently looks that the Grand Canyon may be at least 55 million years old.

However, I'm inclined to think it's been around for 13.7 billion years and in the meantime some earth got in the way.

Has anyone heard of the French band "Space"? I discovered them a little while ago on Pandora. Here's a clip of them playing a song that I like called Running in the City:

Here's a clip from a BBC series from '85 or so that you almost certainly have never seen, called The Tripods. It's based on a trilogy of books that clearly took some inspiration from The War of the Worlds.



By the way, those opening titles may look computer-generated, but apparently they were drawn by hand. (I think a computer must have aided the process, though. They look too "right".)

If I ever made a TV show, that's what I'd want it to look like. Well, except with long pants for everyone at all times, of course.

Here is some music I've made for a computer game idea I've been developing (by "developing", I mean stirring around in my head a lot). I know, making the music for a game first is like starting the construction of a house by building the roof. Still, something is better than nothing. (Nothing being as far as most of ideas get.) And in the meantime, I've learned a little about VST plugins and whatnot.

I routinely start projects of different kinds, but I rarely finish them. So, I don't know if this one will get anywhere, but even if it doesn't work out I can salvage some of the elements (like the music) and use them elsewhere.

Any comments/suggestions/criticisms on the music are all welcome.

The teaser trailer for the new Indiana Jones movie is here!

Here's a video that recently appeared on YouTube's "featured" page. A theremin being played by a robot:

The robot's creator posted some information here about how it works.

According to this article from Variety, a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still is in production. Now, I suppose I shouldn't judge a film before I've seen anything from it... but are they nuts?!

Just had to get that out. Oh, and see the article to check who's been cast as Klaatu. I dare you.

On the more positive side of movie news, there's a new documentary out that I have to see, called The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Truly, we've entered a new era when a film about two guys competing at Donkey Kong can get 98% at Rotten Tomatoes.

I was doing some mental tabulating, and I don't think I've spoken more than about thirty-five words in the last twenty-four hours (and about a third of those were to an answering machine). This, so I understand, is just a tad unusual among normal people. Maybe I should do some more blogging just to keep my communication skills up. Or maybe I should try to get more of a real social life.... Well, one step at a time.

According to test featured on this site, the average male speaks about 6000 words a day (with women at about 9000). I'm inclined to doubt I've ever said that many in a single day in my entire life. How do people do it?

You knew this had to exist, somewhere.

Yes, I know, I know. "More than once a month." Well, it's close, but I've got a few hours left!

If you had told me a day or two before my last post that I would renting a house of my own, I would have highly questioned your inexplicable gift of prophecy. But you would have been right:



The day after my last post, I started moving in. Now, after these few weeks, I've mostly finished. You never realize just how much stuff you have, until you have to move it.

Anyways, I've been pretty busy this month, so I guess this is sort of an excuse for my lack of posting. Just not a very good one!

I resolve to post more than once a month on my LiveJournal.

Here's a picture of a chessboard my Dad made for me this Christmas. I can't imagine how many hours it must have taken him to make it. (By the way, the image was taken with the digital camera patrick___ gave me.)

So, a few days ago I'm at Hastings, and I'm taking a look through the computer magazine aisle. On the other side of the racks behind me is the board game section. As I'm glancing around for an issue of Retro Gamer, I hear a voice behind me, from the other aisle.

"Hey, nerdwaffle."

Sounds maybe ten years old. I figure he's talking to some kid beside him.

"Hey, nerdwaffle!"

Louder this time, and I'm starting to suspect it's directed at me...

"Yeah, I'm talking to you!"

I continue to ignore him. That's when he throws a slider puzzle (apparently through a gap between shelves), hitting my back. He runs off, squealing with delight.

Nerdwaffle?