Things I've Noticed: I've just entered 2007

So last week I finally decided to do what 3.3 million people did in 2007 and get myself a smartphone, specifically an iPhone4S – for those technical-minded readers among you. Although I held out for many a year, (since before my birth if you look at the original cell phones released in 1973), an instructor I had in one of my library school courses finally convinced me that I should join the modern era and get myself connected to all the texting, phoning and app-using people out there in the world who want me to join them.

The reason, you ask?  Pretty simple actually, he said that I should be handing out business cards at the many networking opportunities I will have over the course of my library school experience and that the number on those cards should still be a viable number if I move, change jobs or graduate – which means a home, school or work number would give my cards an expiry date – something you never want a business card to have.

For those of you I don’t know personally, I’ve had quite the reputation since the mid-90s regarding cell phones, mostly that they have little value, they make cell phone users into incredibly rude people to visit with and I’ll get one as soon as anyone can explain why cell phones need to be in the hands of anyone who isn’t in a job that requires emergency contact capability.

My kids have both had cell phones for years, and in their cases I can see lots of reasons why they should have cell phones, but for me?  I’m the kind of guy who still sends handwritten thank you notes through the mail, so the impersonal nature of cell phones freaks me out a little.

But never let it be said that I can’t admit when I’m wrong, and also that I can’t spruce up my new phone to make it look a little more book-ish.

Genre Character of the Week: Douglas Quaid

For my birthday last weekend, my wife and kids took me out to see the new Colin Farrell film Total Recall, a remake of the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger film of the same name.  The movie was pretty cool, there were a lot fun action sequences and the scope of many of the sets did work better on the big screen than they might have on my television at home.  Unfortunately, I just kept thinking how much I preferred the original.

So today let’s look at one of my favorite genre characters, Douglas Quaid.  (Pictured left, and right)

Quaid (as played by Schwarzenegger) is a construction worker living on Mars (yes - I know he starts on Earth and then goes to Mars but I didn't want to do too many spoilers), or (as played by Colin Farrell) is a factory worker living in Australia (called The Colony in the film).  Basically he’s a regular Joe doing a hard days work for little pay and is married to a lovely wife who is subtly stressed by the filmmakers (of both versions) as being a little too good for him.

Quaid wishes his life had more to it, whether that be more excitement, more adventure or honestly, more anything.  So he takes advantage of the services of a local company called Rekall, which allows false memories to be transplanted into the mind therefore allowing the user to feel as if he or she had done everything or anything they can dream up.

Then, because it wouldn’t be a good story if everything went well, everything goes wrong.

Both films follow Quaid as he desperately attempts to understand why everyone around him (including his wife) seems to want to kill him and why he suddenly has the ability to kill with his bare hands.

What I love about the character is his journey of self discovery, and although this arc is done well in both films, I prefer the earlier one as the idea seemed fresh at the time and it was set on Mars.

In the new film, Quaid even mentions at one point that it would be nice if he were on Mars and I couldn’t help but lean over to my wife and say “I couldn’t agree more.”

Book Review: The Year of the Quiet Sun

Time travel stories are some of my favourites in the Science Fiction genre; From Back to the Future to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (which in itself travels from 1985 to 1955 and then one year forward for the movie-goer travels from 2286 to 1986 which totals a 331 year trip (unless you count the bit at the end of Back to the Future where they travel with Doc back to the future)… but I digress), Bring the Jubilee to The Time Machine I’ve always enjoyed time travel stories in film, prose and games.

And last week I found a new time travel story (well, new to me, actually the book is 42-years-oldm, but still, it’s new to me) in the 1970 novel The Year of the Quiet Sun by Wilson Tucker.

The novel follows a demographer and biblical scholar named Brian Chaney who, after releasing a controversial translation of the Book of Revelation, is taking an enforced vacation from work and is promptly hired by an American government agency to take part in a time-travel experiment.

For those of you who don’t know (and that counted me before I read the book), demography is the study of demographics, being populations and sub-populations, and Chaney had released a document earlier in his career which suggested potential future trends in these statistics.

Chaney joins a small team of a naval office and an Air Force officer who, as a team are shown all of the possibilities for where time travel could possibly take them.  Then after making a decision they are overruled by the current administration and sent two years into the future to see if the current President of the United States will win his upcoming election.

Yes indeed, this is a time travel story stomped on by administrative requests.

Without going into too many spoilers, the book is definitely worth the read, it was nominated in the best novel category for both the 1971 Hugo and 1971 Nebula awards, and I found it to be a really plausible look at how time travel could go if it became a reality.

Things I've Noticed: When I was 35, It was a very good year...

I’m turning thirty-six on Saturday, so as I sit here typing I’m thinking of all the stuff I’ve done in the last 367 days, and overall I’ve done pretty well.

 

I’ve kept up with my blogging; three posts a week every week (over three years now) and although some of them could have been pretty short, they have all continued to let me gush about my favourite genres, and reading and life in general.

 

I’ve completed my first third of Library School (which I bragged about here)

 

I examined the trend of re-imagining in Horror cinema

 

I got to go to the Alberta Library Conference.

 

I found my favourite Horror Comedy of the last seven years (since Shawn of the Dead)

 

I got to spend the day before their birthday with both of my kids for the first time in six years.

 

I found my favourite Horror video-game since Resident Evil 2 back in 1998

 

And most importantly I got to spend another year married to the nicest lady I’ve ever met.

 

Man, if 35 was this awesome – I can’t wait to see 36!

Genre Character of the Week: Kristi Rey

Our genre character this week is a little tricky, because although the character is well developed over the two films she appears in, I found the horror of each of these films diminished as the series progressed.

 

Oh yeah, sorry – Kristi Rey is the main character of the film Paranormal Activity 2, and is also a main character (as a child) in the prequel film Paranormal Activity 3.

 

So (spoilers included) lets go back the fall of 2009 and the phenomenon of the Paranormal Activity franchise.  It was a found footage style film (clearly influence by The Blair Witch Project) which followed the lives of a young couple, Katie and Micah who dealt with some kind of creepy activity in their home.

 

The movie was a huge success, horror audiences loved it and as the Saw franchise was winding down it appeared thatParanormal Activity may be the new look of horror fims.

 

I didn’t see it until 2010, for free, from my local library.

 

Having been a dedicated fan of horror from my youngest years, this movie just seemed to be more of the same style of horror I had been seeing since The Blair Witch Project ten years earlier.  My personal opinion was that “…the first film was a lot of fun in a sort of Blair Witch Project vein, and there were more than a few scares throughout – without going into spoilers I will say that the movie is worth a watch, but maybe only if you can watch it on TV or get it cheap.”

 

Then, just like the Saw franchise, Paranormal Activity 2 came out in October of the next year (2010) and we were treated to an interesting prequel/sequel (which I reviewed here)

 

Now a few weeks back I watched Paranormal Activity 3, which follows the female leads from both previous films in a definite prequel, taking place nearly 20 years before the events of the first two films.

 

Again, I saw these free from my local library (which is how I recommend anyone should watch them), but it’s fair to say my favourite character in the franchise is Kristi, played in the second film by Sprague Grayden and as a child in the three-quel by Jessica Tyler Brown.

 

What I like about Kristi in both films is just how real she comes across – in a lot of ways the more down-to-earth a character is in a horror story, the more scary the story becomes, because the character is so easy to relate to for the audience.

 

My problem with the films as a whole, is that they start out showing you one thing, then saying it’s another (clever), and then the second film, although using a recognizable actress for its lead (bad choice in a found-footage style film, even if the actress is great), plays with both the format of prequels and sequels in general (more clever), the third film basically explains exactly what was going on and also seems to have a problem with grandmothers.

 

Yup – in the end the message received is “Don’t trust friendly Grandmothers.”

 

Now I know that a fourth film is on its way, and when it’s free I’ll probably check it out, but honestly, horror works best when there is an unknown to be afraid of – not when every possible back-story is examined for potential shock moments.

Book Review: Amped

Last June I read the Daniel H. Wilson novel Robopocalypse and absolutely loved it.  It was fast paced, had a great cast of characters, and left me with some pretty haunting (and terrifying) images of a robot-assited world after the robots turn against humanity.

A couple weeks ago while wandering around downtown Edmonton during a lunch break at my new job, I came across Amped in a bookstore.  I liked the logo (see left), and figured my wife and both of my daughters had enjoyed Robopocalypse, so why not check it out?

Since I got it from the library two weeks ago, my wife and both of my daughters have read Amped and assured me that it's exactly the kind of book they think I'd like.

And after starting the book at 6:00 this morning?  They were totally right.

The book takes place in a near future where a significant minority of the world's population have been "Amped," meaning they've had their brains augmented with a Brain Implant designed to help them get around mental and physical disabilities they have - (the program started by helping kids with learning and physical disabilities and moved on to veterans and others with physical disabilities), the problem is that the people who get the implants don't just get to be normal - they are smarter, faster and more efficient than regular people.

The book begins with a court case which ends with Amped people loosing their status as protected citizens in the United States.  Everything goes downhill from there.

Structurally the book is similar to Robopocalypse in that it mixes chapters with news clippings, but as there is one main character and it is told from a first-person perspective, the novel is a little tighter and moves very quickly.

Without giving away too many spoilers - it was fun, if the stuff I've said makes it sound like a book you'd like to read, I'd suggest picking it up.

Things I've noticed: I'm a third of the way through Grad School

So last year at this time I was getting pretty excited about going to Library School - the program is designed for a two-year span if you're a full time student and right now, after taking both spring and summer classes, I'm actually a third of the way through as a part-time student.

Am I still excited?

Heck ya!

To be fair there have been assignments that really wore me out and somedays I've felt crazy for going back to school in my mid-30s, but overall I'm loving it here.

Looking ahead to the 2012/2013 school year I'm taking on a bit of a heavier load due to a scholarship I recently got, but right now I can still feel the excitement I had back on that first day when I didn't have any idea about the amount of time/work/fun/exhaustion I was about to let myself into.

A quick list of some of my other favourie thirds

3. The Empire Strikes Back - okay, I'll admit this is the second third, but holy cats was this movie awesome, and when I first saw it I could not get over how creepy it would be to be stored in froze carbonite.

2. The first Reese Peanut cup in the package - just knowing that I still have two more awesome little bites of peanut-butter and chocolate make that first cup the sweetest.

and finally,

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - now for those of you too young to remember (you know, those of you who are still in Elementary school - or are adult-looking clones who are actually only a few years old) this movie was amazing!  From beginning to end it was pretty much a fantastic fantasy/quest film... and the best part?  We had two more of them to look forward to over the next couple of years, yes two-thirds of a whole which added up to complete awesomeness!

Like I think the next two years will be for me!

Bookmonkey
P.S. My first thought for excellent first thrid of something was The Matrix, but considering how the second and the (ugh) third ended up, I didn't even want to tempt fate with the analogy.