the one rival to Nolan Bushnell for the ‘father of videogames’ crown…..RIP.

Ralph H. Baer, father of video games, passes away at 92

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While I’m not as stoked for this as I was for the second coming of TRON – and was somewhat disappointed – doh! – I have to say, this looks pretty good. Now to avoid watching any other trailers to avoid spoilers for just over a year……

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I’m on a John Scalzi kick – catching up his past several books I hadn’t got round to reading yet. So after the recent Human Division read, I just finished Agent to the Stars, actually his first full-length novel that he originally published for free, but then later after he’d had some success, his publisher found the book online on his site and asked to publish it.

Pretty good story, engaging even if a bit predictable. And as seen in later books, he’s not above scatological humor by any means – this may have been where it all started. And there are other funny bits in here, if you like your pop culture references. But I liked the characters, too and it’s definitely an interesting premise, even if it seems to have been inspired in part by The Simulacra and The Star Beast in parts, with a bit of Clans of the Alphane Moon thrown in (one of the main characters here definitely reminds me of Lord Running Clam in the earlier PKD book).

But none of that is bad stuff, and it’s an entertaining read. Check it out – you can still read it online here.

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Calculating the cost of Calvin and Hobbes’ shenanigans

Actual ‘study’ link here.

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Annoying – I find yet ANOTHER great animated series, only to determine that it’s already been CANCELLED – argh! So just finished watching the last episode of Sym-Bionic Titan, made by one of my fave animators – Genndy Tartakovsky, you may know him for Samurai Jack, Dexter’s Laboratory or even one of the early Clone Wars animated series.

So apparently this series came out a few years ago but was ultimately cancelled after its first year of 20 episodes in part because there were no TOYS associated with it? Sometimes I really think Cartoon Network has its head up its collective TV set on this stuff?!?

This series is really well-done – it has the always incredible art and design by Scott Wills (also of Samurai Jack fame among others); it has engaging stories that while in some cases a wee bit repetitive (they do generally fight one monster a show) still move a multistory plot along in the background and have the characters actually *develop* along the way. Astute viewers will notice sly visual pop culture references hidden in most episodes or in some cases, dialogue, but ths show doesn’t go out of its way to be ‘hip’ in that respect, which is nice.

One thing that’s very different about this show vs. say, Samurai Jack, is that the violence is definitely more pronounced, definitely more anime-inspired. While in watching some extras about Samurai Jack, they talked about how they could never actually kill a ‘person’ onscreen in that show – so they slice and dice robots and robot kaiju all over the place instead – here, they definitely left that rule behind, sometimes in a big way (the large battles of the ‘Escape from Galaluna’ episode especially).

But like happened to TRON:Uprising – I guess hollywood can’t appreciate (and RENEW for another season!) quality when they see it. Hopefully Mr. Tartakovsky will keep up the great work and using the same animators and art team – amazing stuff, this was…..

Other voices:
Metacritic

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just got back from vacation in Puerto Vallarta – enjoyed watching these crazy ‘zanates’ (otherwise known as a grackle) zip around and make weird noises all day – Zanate!

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A very funny woman has passed away. Rest In Peace.

and one of the best all-time SNL sketches, with Jan right in the middle as ‘Sine-Aid O’Connor’ 🙂

The Sinatra Group

RIP.

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Diatribes, that is 🙂 Of course this movie is full of them……

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We just got back this afternoon from our 4th year of Bike MS (hosted over the weekend in Mt Vernon, WA)! This year we did the 59 miler on Sat (per usual) but then opted for the shorter 26 miler on Sunday. Great weather both days, sunny, clear and good riding. And always great to catch up with our team (Crankin’ for a Cure) – our team captain’s mother has MS, and she shows up every year to cheer us on, very inspiring!

Looking forward to next year – thanks to all our donors!

Discovered they finally finished Initial D – and watched the last four episodes (Final Stage). Very glad they kept with it. These start a bit slow and go a bit overboard on backstory, but all the things we love about Initial D are still there:

– ridiculous, over the top posturing (although less than in past Stages);
– crazy mountain driving without apparently any hint of fear, parental control or police;
– ‘mental monologuing’ throughout where people are constantly explaining things to each other out loud (or through narration);
– and last but certainly not least – Takumi Fujiwara and his amazing AE86 Trueno…..

Enjoy. I am not supplying a link because if you simply do a search, you’ll find it. 🙂 In case you missed Fifth Stage (immediately precedes Final Stage, there are 14 episodes) – you’ll want to search for and watch that first. And if you haven’t watched ANY of them, what were you thinking (and get to work – Funimation has Stages 1-4 online!

According to Wikipedia, there is also a three-part movie remake coming….woo hoo!

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