Requiem for a backpack…

For the past eight or nine years I’ve been using a Targus PORT 3.1 laptop backpack for travel and work. It’s been a real trouper, having been with me through several vacations, E3 trade shows, and Midway media events. It even still has a security tag on it from the last E3 show I went to. Unfortunately, it’s gotten to the point where it’s been beat up to hell and back, and really needs replacing. While the interior is still fine, the straps (especially the shoulder ones) are beat up and getting close to falling apart. I’ll miss it, but it’s time for me to move on.

So, a week ago, I ordered a new laptop bag: the backpack version of the ThinkGeek Bag of Holding. It’s a very sturdy bag, and my laptop plus all of my accessories fit in there nicely. There’s more space for books and papers than the original backpack had, and it comes with a shoulder strap so I don’t need to have it on my back. So far, I really like it, but the true test will come tomorrow, when I take it to work for the first time.

Something different in Houston cuisine…

It’s no secret that Jennifer and I like to patronize hole-in-the-wall type restaurants. They tend to be more unique and in a lot of cases the food tends to be better. That’s not always the case, of course; a friend and I both had bad experiences with local gourmet food trucks at a event called LaB 5555 a week ago. Still, we tend to prefer going to them than the chain places, especially where breakfast is concerned.

Recently, Jennifer’s parents tried a local place called Cafe Brussels, and absolutely loved it. We decided to join them for brunch there today, and it was absolutely delicious. They had a brunch buffet which had such choices as bacon and brats, pork in a dijon mustard sauce, authentic Belgian waffles, and mimosas. Jennifer and her mom were raving about how much it reminded them of being in Brussels, which makes sense as the owners are Belgian. We honestly can’t recommend this place enough, especially as they have a wonderful selection of Belgian beers for the dinner services. :-)

Dungeon crawls without the dungeon master…

My friend Sinc decided to come by and visit a couple of weeks ago. In honor of the visit, I decided to finally break out the Castle Ravenloft board game Jennifer got me some months back. (Sinc’s domain is named after his favorite Dungeons and Dragons module, Ravenloft.) We ended up playing it twice in one night, and I’m pretty sure it can be called a success.

What Castle Ravenloft (and other D&D board games) does is turn the dungeon crawling experience of a D&D game into a simplified board game experience that can be run without needing a single player to run as the Dungeon Master or the tons of advance preparation. The game comes with a booklet full of scenarios; once the game is prepared per the instructions from the scenario, it pretty much runs itself. All of the encounters are determined via decks of cards, and the enemies themselves are controlled by the players via the instructions on the cards. It definitely can’t be called an easy game, as we avoided death by a hair on more than one occasion while playing. It’s still a rewarding experience.

My advice to those wanting to try D&D would be to start with one of these board games first, as it provides a simplified but accurate experience of doing the original game’s quests. If you like that, then going to the full game is the natural next stepping block.

It most likely will not be a surprise to some that I’m a fan of James Bond. It was my parents who got me into Bond when I was nine or ten, when my father picked up For Your Eyes Only on videodisc. I really enjoyed the film, and Dad obliged in getting me others. Pretty soon, I noticed he had a Bond book or two, and asked to borrow them. In the end, I found the Bond movies to be fairly hit or miss compared to the books, which I much preferred. For example, I consider Roger Moore to be a terrible Bond (For Your Eyes Only is his only outing I like), I didn’t care for the Pierce Brosnan movies, and I consider Daniel Craig to be closest to the original literary Bond, with Timothy Dalton coming a close second.

I have three of the original Ian Fleming novels (Casino Royale, Moonraker, and From Russia With Love), and five of the official continuation novels by John Gardner (Licence Renewed, For Special Services, Nobody Lives Forever, No Deals, Mr. Bond, and Scorpius). Despite my enjoyment of the Bond books in my teen years, I lost track of the series after Scorpius, and was only vaguely aware that Raymond Benson had taken over the series in the late 90’s. I read my existing books every so often, but hadn’t considered buying a new book.

So, I was a bit surprised this past weekend when I was staying at my parents’ house, to find a new Bond novel in hardcover in one of my parents’ many bookcases. The book, Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver, turned out to be a complete reboot of the series (similar to how Casino Royale rebooted the movie series). Intrigued, I decided to borrow it and read it.

Having read it, I have to say… I really like this book.

One of the biggest advantages of dumping the existing canon was getting rid of the nebulous timeframe in which Bond operates; considering the books had been set in “modern times” since the first one came out in 1953, it made taking the history seriously a little difficult. In some genres this isn’t really a problem, but in the ever-changing world of international espionage and politics, it becomes a tad troublesome. In Carte Blanche, Bond is reinvented as a relatively new agent of a British espionage agency called ODG after having served in Afghanistan. MI6 still exists in this timeline; the ODG performs the dirty and deniable espionage jobs that MI6 politically can no longer afford to do. M returns to being a male former Naval admiral; in the Benson books, the M character had been changed to one like Dame Judi Dench’s portrayal. Moneypenny and Mary Goodnight (Bond’s secretary, only seen in one film) return, as do Felix Leiter and Rene Mathis; all four characters are updated to fit the current times. Goodnight, for example, is described as constantly getting Titanic references thrown at her due to her looking like Kate Winslet, and Leiter maintains his cover as a CIA handler by posing as a blogger and journalist. A valuable addition to the Bond cast is Ophelia Maidenstone, ODG’s liasion to MI6 who assists Bond several times throughout the novel.

The main plot itself moves briskly, involving an investigation into an intercepted message which hints at a plot to kill thousands and affect British interests. More than other Bond books I’ve read before, the investigation takes several twists and turns, with more than one false lead not panning out. It’s not until the very end that everything becomes clear; while I was surprised by how it turned out, the final resolution did not come out left field per se. It still made a lot of sense and worked quite well. Several subplots stand out, including Bond’s dealing with a domestic British agent more concerned with his political power and glory than getting the mission done, and a side investigation into a Russian operation that touched Bond’s personal life.

I was highly impressed with how Jeffery Deaver rebooted the franchise; needless to say, I was disappointed to learn Deaver would not be continuing in the series, instead being replaced by William Boyd. In addition, Boyd’s new novel would not be following the reboot, taking place in 1969 instead. It seems a waste to me, especially as Deaver had left the door open to an overarching plot line.

Personally, I’m hoping Ian Fleming Publications allows Deaver or someone else to do the right thing and return to the rebooted timeline. In any event, I enjoyed Carte Blanche as a stand-alone Bond novel, and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the original Bond novels.

In a sense, it’s kind of funny that after doing a post about Atari’s 40th anniversary, I’m writing about a book that references Atari so heavily. :-)

A month ago, I had picked up a copy of Ready Player One at a local bookstore. I finally read it a few days ago, and I have to say, I was very impressed with it. I’ve been finding myself going back and reading sections from the book, and so far it’s become one of my favorite books this year.

The blurb on the front cover of my paperback copy is from USA Today, and says, “Enchanting… Willy Wonka meets The Matrix.” While I agree with the sentiment, I would argue that instead of The Matrix, a more appropriate comparison would be to Neuromancer, William Gibson’s classic that helped usher in the genre of cyberpunk fiction. Like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Ready Player One involves a poor student who finds himself taking part in a contest to determine the legacy of an eccentric figure who helped design the OASIS, the future version of the internet. Those familiar with it would compare OASIS to a much improved version of Second Life. Like Neuromancer, on the other hand, the hero must contend with a huge megacorporation interfering with his quest, and having to use multiple methods of hacking to try and make sure the contest is won fairly.

There’s another reason I say Neuromancer is a better comparison, and that is because it was written in the 80’s. Ready Player One is definitely at its core a love letter to 80’s geek culture, with references to everything from classic video games (console and arcade), personal computers of the time, Dungeons and Dragons, and movies such as WarGames. I found myself grinning several times reading the novel, as references both obscure and obvious kept coming. Even a Dungeons and Dragons reference I didn’t recognize was recognized immediately by friends much more familiar with the core game.

Another theme discussed in the book is how people in that future world can create friendships and relationships with people who are thousands of miles away, and yet never meet in real life. I can certainly relate to that theme; I’ve been using IRC for many years, and I have a few good friends who I have never met in real life at all, and several who I see less than once a year. I know of several other friends who are in the same boat. How the author handles it definitely mirrors my own experiences.

I’d go into more detail about the book’s plot and the references, but to be honest, I’m not sure I want to give out such spoilers. I deliberately avoided information about the book before reading it, and I’m glad I did. The numerous geek references became very pleasant surprises as a result. It’s not a very long read, clocking in at just under four hundred pages, and the pace is brisk enough where you won’t find yourself getting bogged down. Also, it’s a self-contained story, so no waiting for a sequel. :-)

All of this is to say that if you grew up as a geek in the 80’s, or have a healthy like of 80’s geek culture, I highly recommend reading Ready Player One.

I’ll be honest: I don’t care for most political talk shows, be they radio-based or otherwise.

I do watch The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, but that’s mostly due to the fact they’re pretty funny as well as informative. The fact that they’re only a half-hour long each helps as well; I can’t imagine sitting down and listening to someone pontificate for an hour or more every day about their opinion. I’d prefer to be informed, which is why I prefer to simply browse the net through various news sources rather than sit and listen to one single person go on telling me what they think.

I suppose it doesn’t help, either, when the majority of political talk pundits out there are conservative. I definitely lean towards liberal ways of thinking, especially when it comes to social issues. It’s not that I don’t want to hear what the other side believes, mind. It’s that the arguments sometimes come off as so wrong that it’s like nails on a chalkboard. Besides which, the opinions of these people frequently hit the news, so it’s not as if I don’t hear it anyway. :-)

However, I was content to just let all that be, until I saw a blog post on the Houston Chronicle talking about Bill Maher and his reaction to teenaged conservatives who already have radio shows and books. That in itself surprised me; I remember myself at 14, and still cringe to this day about how I would say whatever I thought and believed… and find out later how wrong I was shortly after. The article posted an example of one such teen conservative, Caiden Cowger, talking about homosexuality.

(Warning: this video is rage-inducing.)

To be blunt, I almost wanted to pull a Kevin Spacey Lex Luthor only 15 seconds in, and scream, “WRONG!!!!!!”

His entire attitude is that homosexuality is a choice (I don’t know many gay friends who would have chosen the hell they got from people), that he is being discriminated against because he cannot tell gays they’re abominations and going to Hell (gay people have freedom of religion too), and that President Obama is making people gay (more like making it safer for gays to come out). I actually felt embarrassed for this kid as he spouted off, clearly not knowing what he was talking about, instead letting his disgust of homosexuals guide what he was saying.

However, the problem as illustrated by Bill Maher is a bit more severe. I was watching Cowger talk, and it occurred to me that the way he was speaking, the arguments he was using, and such reminded me very much of when I would hear Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly. At that point, I became less embarrassed for the kid (who is too young to know better) and more for the adults, simply because I realized they sounded like young trolls.

As Maher succinctly put it in the clip above, “When fourteen year old boys sound exactly like you do, and can produce radio shows and books and speeches that sound exactly like yours, maybe you should rethink the shit that’s coming out of your mouth.”

To be brutally honest, if I want to see arguments and discussions like those of teenagers, I’d spend more time reading Mortal Kombat forums, as the fanbase tends to have an average age of 16 or so. I didn’t take much part in the forums when I ran Mortal Kombat Online, so I don’t see things changing anytime soon.

Ah, well. I’ll stick to what I have been doing. If other people like to listen to pundits go on for hours on end, that’s their prerogative; I’m more interested in the facts and developing my own opinions from that than listening to other people’s opinions.

So, most people who know me obviously know I was the senior editor and webmaster for Mortal Kombat Online. I worked for the site from December of 2001 (right about when Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance was announced) to October 2010 (during the run-up for Mortal Kombat), acting as the system administrator, live chat administrator, on-site reporter, webmaster, and news editor. It was a wild ride; I got to go to five E3 trade shows, several Midway Gamers Day media events, and ran live chats with the Mortal Kombat development team on several occasions. I truly enjoyed the time I spent serving the community.

However, near the end of my run, I admittedly was getting pretty tired of running the site, and doing work on it was becoming more and more of a chore. I told myself that a good chunk of it was due to my paying job and because I was getting tired of MKO’s primitive news editor system. The truth of the matter, though, was that I just felt I was getting older and having less to show for all I was doing. After all, it wasn’t a paid job, so it was a hobby done during my free time. As much as I enjoyed talking to my friends in the staff and was willing to provide a guiding hand for ~Crow~ (who was picking up my actual work slack), I simply was burning out. So, I finally decided to semi-retire. I still handle sysadmin duties for MKO (as there really isn’t anyone else who can do it) and stay in the chatroom, but I handed off my remaining job responsibilities to others, both new and old. (Admittedly, some of my replacement choices weren’t the best. C’est la vie…)

Recently I’d been having minor thoughts about coming back and doing reporting. They were only some urges, especially when I saw no one online in the morning to cover new Mortal Kombat-related stories. However, those slight urges were put to one side.

… that is, until NetherRealm announced Injustice: Gods Among Us, a new fighting game based on DC Comics characters.

I have to admit that I was tempted to come out of retirement for that, but not necessarily to MKO. There was some uncertainty as to whether Mortal Kombat-based sites should cover the game, so I figured it would be a new niche. The fact that it was based on DC interested me as well, as it was different from what I had done before and I am an admitted DC fanboy. What I had planned on doing was to create a brand new site, even going as far as to base it on WordPress (for the content and news system) and bbPress (for the forums). I was even considering hosting it on my own servers as opposed to the MKO one. As it was a new site covering a new game, it would have been a nice new step.

However, I was still very hesitant, and rightly so. While Injustice was a brand-new game, DC Comics-based sites are a dime a dozen. On the flip side of that coin, with it being a new property, there was no guarantee a series would come out of it. If there weren’t going to be any sequels, then the site would end up being abandoned after the game’s first few months after release. I would also be causing conflict with MKO, as they are covering the game, and some would wonder why I wasn’t covering the game for MKO instead.

Most of all, I saw problems with myself. I don’t have the drive that I once did for such projects. It’s one thing to do something for yourself, but when all you’re doing is covering someone else’s work with little payoff coming out of it, that’s something else entirely. I enjoyed doing it in the past, but now I want to do things that are mine. That leads to another problem: I don’t even spend the time I would like to on my own site. I’ve gotten better about it, moving longer posts off of Twitter/Facebook/Google+ to here, but it still isn’t as active as it used to be a few years back. I also haven’t done any of the writing I wanted to do, other than a Mortal Kombat fan fiction piece I posted a year ago.

In the end, I decided not to go ahead with it, and keep to my semi-retirement.

To be honest, stepping back from MKO and dedicated game reporting as a whole has taken a whole lot of pressure off me, and I feel more relaxed about being part of the MK community as a result. I still keep in contact with several in the community and on the development team, but mainly as a friend or acquaintance as opposed to a fansite reporter. :-) Overall, I’m happy, and what urges I have to jump in and try to help with MKO outside of sysadmin stuff or advice are easily quashed.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get to any of my writing projects. I know my site will never have the readership that MKO enjoys. I’m okay with that, because in the end, they’re mine, borne of a desire to write what I want to write, not an obligation to cover everything someone else does. I’m definitely looking forward to Injustice, though, and look forward to seeing what the younger crowd has to say about it without me. :-)

Well, this past weekend was more fun than we expected.

On Saturday, Jennifer and I had planned to see the play Noises Off! at the Alley Theatre, using tickets given to us as wedding shower presents given to us by our friend Julie’s parents. That in and of itself would have made for a wonderful evening, but I managed to find a nice surprise on Twitter. One of our favorite authors, John Scalzi, announced on his Twitter feed that he was going to be doing a reading, a Q&A, and a book signing at the Brazos Bookstore that day at 4 PM. His newest book, Redshirts, had just been released, and this was part of the publicity tour. Realizing we had plenty of time before the play to go to the book signing, we decided to go ahead and go. We briefly considered bringing one of our Old Man’s War books for him to sign, but decided that we would just buy a copy of Redshirts there and have him sign it.

This was our first visit to the Brazos Bookstore, and we rather enjoyed their product selection. Whenever possible, we like to shop and eat at local places instead of chain stores, so we resolved to start shopping there for new books we want. Unfortunately, when we got there, their entire stock of Redshirts was out. However, the people there were nice enough to take down people’s info so that when new copies came in, they’d send them to Scalzi for signing, and then sell them when they arrived back at the store. Jennifer and I both left our info (as we both wanted signed copies), and sat down to watch the talk.

The talk was very interesting and amusing. Apparently he had promised that if someone brought a ukelele, he would sing the theme song to Redshirts (originally written and performed by Jonathan Coulton), and someone obliged. He did a reading of some material, plus did a skit that explained the literary theme of Redshirts (namely, how screwed up the world of Star Trek was from a safety standpoint). When it came time to do the actual book signing, we obviously didn’t have a book to give him to sign, so we decided to browse around the store. Admittedly, I thought of asking him to sign a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey, simply to see what his reaction would be…

In the end, Jennifer bought a gift for a friend, and I got a copy of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. We had a great time at the bookstore, and truly enjoyed being able to go out and see Scalzi talk about his craft. Afterwards, we went to Hillstone (formerly Houston’s) for dinner, and then we went to see Noises Off!, which was as hysterically funny as we expected.

All in all, it was a wonderful day, especially with the added treat of getting to see John Scalzi. I just wish every weekend had that kind of pleasant surprise. :-)

I admit to annoyance.

Over the past week or two, I’ve been receiving several automated calls to my cell phone. The message is the same on each one: they claim to be with a group called the “Political Survey Group”, that they know I must be frustrated with the direction the country is going, and asking me to take part in a quick political survey, after which I will be compensated with a free cruise. The first time I got the call, I listened to the message long enough to get to the “free cruise” part, and promptly hung up, figuring it to be a scam. Since then they’ve called a few more times, but never on my home line. Each call has been to my cell phone, which last I checked was illegal (as it’s from a robocall).

After doing a little research, I found that it is indeed a scam. The automated survey is only a few questions long, at which point they direct you to a representative with the cruise line. It’s at that point you’re told that in order to get the “free cruise”, you’re required to pay a port tax up front.

Personally, I’m considering it a particularly slimy scam, especially as they’re using a political survey as the lead-in during a rather heated election season. More, as I said, they’ve been calling cell phones, which means the recipient of the call has to pay for it. I know there are exceptions to the National Do Not Call Registry for political messages; I wonder if they’re using the “political survey” as an end-run around the rules.

In any event, do yourselves a favor. If you get a call from these people, hang up on them immediately, or better, don’t answer at all (especially if the call is from the 360 area code).

Right now, I think Jennifer and I deserve to feel like we’ve been ripped off.

Two nights ago, we went to go see Styx and REO Speedwagon at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, better known in these parts as the Woodlands Pavilion. For those people not familiar with it (which won’t be anyone in the Houston area), it’s an open-air concert venue about 30 miles north of downtown Houston. One of its most defining features is the lawn seating; the back half of the audience area is a grass area where you can just sit anywhere you want. You can bring in your own blankets to sit on, or you can rent a lawn chair for $6 apiece. We almost always choose the lawn option, as you can get good seats there while still able to see the stage.

As we were driving up to the Woodlands Pavilion, we remembered that we had seen emails from both the Pavilion and from Ticketmaster that a pre-sale for Journey, Pat Benatar, and Loverboy was going on. I admittedly have a soft spot in my heart for Journey, as I consider them a bit of a geek friendly band. Not only did they provide two songs for the soundtrack to Tron, they were the first band ever to have a video game based on them. Jennifer loves their music, too, so we decided to buy tickets. We picked two lawn seats priced at $32.50, bought them, and were good to go.

Fast forward to this morning. I was checking Twitter, and the official Twitter account for the Woodlands Pavilion announced that tickets for lawn seating were on special for $20. Feeling more than a little annoyed, I replied asking if there was anything I could do to get the $20 price, and they said there was nothing they could do, but that they wished they could do something to help. I ended up contacting Ticketmaster asking for help. They were very unhelpful and unapologetic, saying our tickets could not be refunded or exchanged, and that they were not responsible for changing the prices. According to the representative I spoke to, those changes were done by the promoter or venue, and was not up to Ticketmaster. I ended up thanking them for nothing and hanging up.

Now, keep in mind that normally I don’t have a problem with prices going down or specials later on that I miss. The problem we had was that we essentially paid $25 for the privilege of buying tickets “early”, for a venue that likely will not sell out. Worse, they dropped the price the day the tickets officially went on sale with no warning. From this point forward, why would I buy tickets early when there’s now a history that the price will drop the day they officially go on sale?

The worst part came after I got off the phone with Ticketmaster. I had tweeted to the Pavilion that Ticketmaster had blamed them or the promoter. Whoever was manning the official Pavilion Twitter account said they didn’t think it was them, but that they would check with the box office. Sure enough, they confirmed that it was the promoter that was behind the price change decision. The promoter, in this case, is Live Nation. Live Nation, for those not aware, merged with Ticketmaster over a year ago.

In other words, they changed the price and then used weasel terminology to absolve themselves of any wrongdoing.

Jennifer and I will still go to the concert, but the whole experience has been soured by Ticketmaster’s actions. I don’t blame the Pavilion at all; even though they couldn’t help us, they were still far more sympathetic to our plight than Ticketmaster was. I know now that we won’t be buying pre-sale tickets through Ticketmaster anymore, as they’ve shown there’s no benefit to it. I just wish there were alternatives to Ticketmaster out there, as most venues I know of use them for ticketing. I wonder if this could be used as an example of a monopoly that does not benefit customers.

It certainly didn’t turn out to be a benefit to us.