So, Jennifer and I did something fun this past weekend.

On Friday, the Alamo Drafthouse at Mason Park tweeted a link to a story on the Houston Press, talking about how they would be doing a free showing of the Doctor Who serial “The Tomb of the Cybermen”. For those not aware of the format of the original series, it was a serial, with stories taking up multiple 25-minute episodes. Most Doctor Who serials were four episodes long; “The Tomb of the Cybermen” was no exception. “The Tomb of the Cybermen” features the Second Doctor (played by Patrick Troughton) as he and his companions happen upon an archaeological expedition to the adopted Cyberman homeworld of Telos. While I have the serial on DVD, I wanted to see it on the big screen, and this also gave us an opportunity to go to the Alamo Drafthouse for the first time. Jennifer was willing to go along, even though she doesn’t care for the original series.

When we got there, we found a company called 8th Dimension had set up a table selling Doctor Who-related merchandise. Jennifer and I looked over what they had, and we ended up buying me two items. The first was a full-size sonic screwdriver. While they had the Tenth Doctor’s and Eleventh Doctor’s models available, I just had to pick up the Fourth Doctor’s model once I saw it existed. We also got a miniature LED flashlight shaped like the Eleventh Doctor’s sonic screwdriver. That one is going into my laptop bag, as there’s been more than one time I’ve needed a flashlight at work. :-) Once we got our purchases settled, we went into the theater, picked our seats, and ordered our dinner: red pepper hummus as an appetizer, followed by a BBQ chicken pizza for me and a chicken caesar wrap for Jennifer. It was delicious, all told.

Right before the serial started, the gentleman from the Houston Press who was hosting the event stood up and said a few words. One thing he said that we hadn’t realized was that BBC America was sponsoring the event, and that this was going to be the first of a monthly series. As it was sponsored by BBC America, they had provided official Doctor Who merchandise as giveaways. The host asked several related trivia questions; I answered the first question and got a Cyberman toy as a prize. :-) It was very difficult for me to stay quiet for the other questions, though, as with one exception I knew the answers to all of them. Once the giveaways were finished, and we enjoyed the serial, complete with its bad special effects and obvious wire-work. :-)

In the end, we had a great time. Even Jennifer enjoyed watching the serial more on a big screen and with an audience than she did on my plain TV set. The host did mention that this event will happen on the last Saturday of every month; it’s a shame that we already have plans for the last Saturday of November, as the announced serial for the next event is “The Claws of Axos”, one of the first stories to feature the Master. We’ll almost certainly try to go to the December one, though.

All in all, though, it was a lot of fun, and I highly recommend giving it a try if you’re interested in seeing some of the original Doctor Who.

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. :-)