Booyor’s BLOGgh!

In honor/memory of Michael Crichton, who died from cancer yesterday, I ask a question:

What is your favorite Michael Crichton work? (I opened it to that in case you wanted movie/TV show/political critique/cookbook)

Secondary question:
Did anyone else know that he was 6′9″? I found that out today. That ROCKS!

Update: Did you know that he was working on Jurassic Park 4 and a re-make of Westworld?

Fans of the Gallagher Girls will be excited to know that Ally finished her draft of her Kat Burglar series. You may also be excited that her home repairs went smoothly.

The first holo clip is from hip level, pointed up. Faces can’t be made out, but a distinctive voice from a breathmask apologizes for making Skywalker wait. Kyle Katarn’s voice explains that Master Skywalker had family matters to attend to in other parts of the galaxy. Next, a Mon Cal voice can be heard addressing the other corner of the room. “The Jedi send Skywalker and the best you send is the assistant to Fey’la? Remember, it was the Mon Calamari that beat the second Death Star, not the Bothans.”

A second glimpse of quick footage is from the same angle. A wheedling voice asks, “Can we expect the Chiss to partner in this effort?” The question is met with a stiff, “The Chiss do not need your help.”

Abruptly the perspective changes to the viewport from The Scimitar. Yith’s mechanically-enhanced voice says, “The Force has shown me danger. The desert is fine for now, but there is a great perversion in that forest. It is as if blue milk has been stirred in to the flow and ebb of the Force.” Immediately Kraka yells. “Look! Did you see that? People are running in to the ruins of that building.”

The cam is in low-light mode, digitally guessing the image from the stray glow cast by a Jensaari lightsaber and Yith’s glowrod. A woman and two kids are being helped out of a trapdoor. A boy panics. “They came. And then the monsters came. They will get us.”

The next scene is outside, the holocam strapped to Kraka’s chest. “Don’t worry! The Jedi are here! Come on out, Okae!” From off-camera a “Shut up, you fool! They’ll hear us!” assaults the party.

A new scene. A man is standing on a building in front of the camera, shading his eyes. Immediately a six-legged reptile, about fifteen feet in length, slams into him and carries him off in his mouth.

Digital static. Images are overlayed as the camera is repeatedly shaken and hit. Ship-class lasers slam into a pack of the reptiles, now near a forest. Over a commlink Drabek screams, “My ship! What do you mean, ZiD8? My ship?! Yargh!” A pinpoint blaster bolt streaks from a distance and pierces deep through the spiked reptilian armor.

The holocam is now on top of one of the beasts. A bandolier of grenades is being tossed into an all-too-close maw.

A Kel Dor is dodging through the grasp of two of the reptiles, holding his own. With each two-handed thrust, the reptiles move slower and slower.

Across the battlefield a squadron of New Republic vanguard are firing into a larger reptile. A paramilitary officer scrambles under one of the legs as he attaches a device, rolling just as a New Republic landing craft is swiped across the ranks of his troops. “Run! Tactical retreat!” he screams as he waves his arms. An explosion knocks the large beast onto its knees, but it progressively regains its six-footed balance.

The holocam is now under one of the beasts. The view somersaults and the tell-tale hiss of a lightsaber can be heard. “No, Tyris,” is heard whispered.

Walking calmly into the chaos is a lone figure with his right arm outstretched. He clutches at the air and a gurgled howl rings out across the forest. He clutches again, harder, yet remains collected as he walks. Next to the camera, “No, Tyris!” as the perspective starts to run towards the man in the armor.

Static.
Later analysis, after replaying the footage multiple times, determined that for a millisecond before the static, a speeder can be seen crashing into the camera.

Blue skin. Blue skin. Flash of reptile roaring. Blue skin.

Having hung out with some great writers (another one coming up this Tuesday) I’ve been inspired to write more fiction.

One of Ally Carter’s biggest pet peeves is how people she meets say, “Oh! You’re an author? I have this book idea. It must be so easy and fun to write all day.” And yet…where’s their book? Not so easy, sucka! (Although Ally says it in a nicer tone of voice.)

I’ve been excited about the Haiku experiment. I’ve got some other Artsy stuff in the works, and I definitely dig Kraka’s Holocam (even if the stupid Chiss did short it out last adventure). I’m trying out Vanguard, a fun YA fiction (hopefully).

The Haiku
Maybe by blogging
I may be able to write
more than monster flicks

Light glinted off the battlefield crown of the White King. Sweat threatened to sting his eyes. He surveyed the mess.

Most of his foot soldiers lay fallen behind enemy lines. His battle emplacements crumbled, the result of a constant exchange with his antithesis, the Black King. Fires still burned in the remains of the catapults. Moving them to the front to protect the white royalty had only stalled the inevitable, it seemed. Others had been tricked by the Pirc Gambit, but the Black King pressed forward.

A sound of a horse galloping violently assaulted the king’s thoughts.

“Sir! They’ve broken through our main line. It’s time for -” A gurgle escaped the White Knight’s lips. As he and his horse collapsed in a heap, their bones sunk into the red grass. They appeared as ghosts behind the Black line of defenses. The knight held up his hand for the White King to see and lowered his head. He let his hand fall and shoulders slump.

Standing where the horse and rider once were on the battlefield presided a gaunt woman dressed all in black. Her long evening gown of a get-up flowed as she glided forward, her skinny, spindly fingers caressing her scepter.

“So, King-y, how are things?” She gave a cruel laugh.

She’s right there. Perhaps I could capture her unawares, thought the king. His muscles became coiled springs.

“I would reconsider. You really do need to think two steps ahead of your enemy, dear. So predictable.” The Black Queen waved her scepter, pointing it behind her. The White King looked past her shoulder. To the back right and back left of her were short men in tall, pointy hats. They grinned as they simultaneously wringed their hands in expectation.

The woman threw her head back in a cackle. She raised her arms and spun with a giggle. Her eyes became slits as her head whipped back towards the White King.

“Mate?”

I had a crazy dream last night. I wanted to record it before I forgot it. (I thought nothing of it until describing it to my wife:

So I’m walking through this deep woods around midday. As I’m wandering I see that the sides of my perspective are flickering between the woods and the backyard at my grandma’s house. It looks like one is an illusion/hologram and the other is reality. Which one? Not quite sure at this point in the dream.

This guy is walking with me through the woods. He looks like a mix between the gypsy thief in Ever After and Desmond from Lost. He freaks out as he’s pointing to a tree trunk. On it is carved a circle with an image in it. A smaller circle with two rectangles underneath it.

He starts panicking, screaming, “The crow! The crow!” In my dream I honestly expected Brandon Lee to show up throughout.

The screaming man starts running through the woods. We get to my grandma’s sliding glass door but are attacked by this dark bird slashing through the air and through the man. I’m finally able to get the door open, get the guy inside, and have the bird on the outside.

The glass of the door starts to crack into a spider web. The next hit from the bird and the door turns into a solid wooden tavern door that is starting to splinter. The man and I turn around and we see that it’s not a tavern door but we are in a town hall like you’d see in 1692 Salem.

There’s a row of white-wigged judges on the front bench (full raised pulpit and everything) and we are no longer staring down the aisle but instead we’re bound on the stand. (Ropes wound around hands behind the back.) The two of us stand to accept our fate.

I hear, “The crow! The crow!” and see a black cloud swarming around the ceiling of the town hall. (Yes, very Crucible-ish.) A crow’s beak is at the front of the cloud. It’s slashing towards me and becomes a solid bird, pointed towards my chest.

I say, “Chains shall he break and by his wounds we are healed.”

The entire dream particle dissolves around me. Weird. I’m standing in my normal clothes but standing in white nothingness and then wake up.

Yeah. Weird.

Ever since our recent Heroes conversation, I’ve been feeling quite Joseph Campbell/Carl Jung-ish.

1. In James Patterson’s Maximum Ride, the mysterious whitecoats and labs are cool. They add intrigue and mystery to Max and her flock. Where the series really develops, though, is when specific whitecoats rise to fight them. The high action and, frankly, one of the reasons the series is successful, revolves around the conflict with the Erasers. But if the Erasers remained faceless/nameless, they’d just be Stormtroopers. Ari, on the other hand, builds a connection for you, makes you almost sympathetic for a villain, and makes Max’s choices all the more catching. Her virtue blossoms around Ari the villain.
2. In Superman comics and movies, Superman does amazing things (almost super things). He races missiles, lifts helicopters, and even turns back time (and returns from the dead). But Supes is at his best when fighting Luthor. Luthor, epitome of brains and conniving, always pushes Superman to his limits, sometimes even forcing Superman to choose who to save. Sure, you’ll have your alien/experimental threat that is basically a test of super power levels, but Luthor has staying power. The original Action Comics portray Superman as kindof, well, a jerk. (I’m thinking of one instance where the secretary won’t let Superman see the mayor…so he busts down the door.) Superman needs chances to vent his superness. If not, he’s just a bully.
3. Do you remember Odysseus shooting the suitors through the throat or do you remember Circe and the Cyclops? (If you’re Devin, you answer, “Yes.” to both.) The mega-villains are memorable. How about Hercules? When I say ‘Hercules’, do you think ‘Hydra’ and the gods standing in his way or do you think ‘cleaning uber-stables’? What makes The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan stand out is Percy’s reactions to Ares, Zeus, and Medusa and his choice to not stoop to their level.
4. Villains are not always the exact obvious opposite, like Luthor and Superman. Moriarty is just as smart as Sherlock Holmes. That’s what makes him deadly and helps us to sympathize with what would have become just another pretentious violin playing detective. What was the most memorable Sherlock Holmes scene? Yeah, you’ve got the hound, but true fans can remember the sword duel atop the waterfalls.
5. The original Mario Bros. was pipes with crabs and turtles. But want it Super? You’ve got castles and a fire-breathing dragon/dinosaur/gecko. Bowser made it personal by kidnapping the princess, as well as other taunts that grow throughout the series of games.
6. But it’s not just the villains. Heroes are always joined by foils, like Robin is to Batman or Horatio is to Hamlet. In one of the first fiction epics, Gilgamesh is joined by Enkidu the Wild Man. Humbaba the Tree Giant is a great villain, mainly because Enkidu and Gilgamesh have to team up to win. The villain demonstrates the connection between the super team.
7. By fighting darkness, the hero stands out. Han Solo is awesome, and would overshadow Luke as the hero, if not for Darth Vader. Such a cool villain makes the hero even cooler just by being around. If not for Vader, Luke would still be hanging around Tashi Station looking for power converters. Ben Kenobi and Yoda train Luke not for a confrontation with the Emperor but for Vader. Vader can only be beat by love. The Emperor can be beat by elevator shafts.

In conclusion, I am stoked for Volume 3 of Heroes.

Some of my favorite Poe:

The Freaking Heart
The Raven
Annabel Lee - Awesome rhymes
Complete Works of Poetry

Usher and Pit and Black Cat

People who are a fan of the classics had at least two big losses this past week. Pavarotti got the big news write-up, but the one that truly gets me is that Madeline L’Engle passed away on Thursday. Her husband, Hugh Franklin (Dr. Charles Tyler on the popular soap opera “All My Children”), had died of cancer in 1986 and her son had died when he was 47 in 1999. L’Engle was 88 when she died in hospice in Connecticut. Her two daughters, Josephine F. Jones and Maria Rooney, are still alive.

Anyone that in 1962 can bust out Planck and Einstein, mixed in with some Shakespeare and Bible, rocks in my book. She said that when she dreams, she doesn’t set an age for the audience. She also said that children’s books are too tough for adults to understand. As a librarian I’ve said that Harry Potter brought a huge market of cool books for young adults. Marketers/moneymakers really took notice. Students are smart enough to realize when they’re being patronized and when they’ll support cool stories. Uglies by Scott Westerfield is an example. A Wrinkle in Time, with its ‘not-just-books’ media, is a part of that heritage. It’s a book that many people know. (Disembodied head with red eyes? Mrs Whatsit and Which? (Immortals don’t have a ‘.’ after their titles, remember? (even if publishers are sticklers))) If you haven’t read it and you’re a fan of crazy junk happening when hyperspace opens, read it.
Even freaking Sawyer from ‘Lost’ has read it!

Oooh. Dreadfully mysterious plot revealing?

‘The Joys of Love’, another young adult book, will be published next year.

“Why does anybody tell a story?” Ms. L’Engle once asked, even though she knew the answer.

“It does indeed have something to do with faith,” she said, “faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically.”

Her faith gives me assurance. Pretty sweet tea time with Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and John.
It’ll make me feel better, even if 2/3 of the polar bears will be gone by 2050. Isn’t that when the Shadowrun megacorps say there’ll be a second morphing?

He really does seem like a guy that you could get along with. He recalls a story of when a campaign opponent sent a stalker named Justin to videotape his every move and conversation, including cell phone conversations with his family and when he went into the bathroom. Obama asked him his name and if he was supposed to be always within 5 feet of the candidate. The paid stalker just handed over his phone to Obama and they got nowhere. Finally Obama walked into a press conference about to start and said, “Hey everybody. This is Justin. He’s stalking me.” Then the voyeur was voyeured, staring like “a prisoner of war” at all of the cameras now pointed at him.

Another story that he tells is of how he was going to try to re-enjoy the bachelor life in his D.C. apartment while his family stayed in Illinois. He admitted that he had become so domesticated that he had forgotten to buy a shower curtain. His first morning on Capitol Hill he was showering huddled in a corner hoping to not flood his bathroom.

He seems like a decent enough guy because he wants to see every side to a decision, but that may be his downfall. Within a page of where he describes how the pragmatism and success of the Union has been based on no absolutes, he also says this:

Knowing this, I can’t summarily dismiss those possessed of similar certainty today - the antiabortion activist who pickets my townhall meeting, or the animal rights activist who raids a laboratory - no matter how deeply I disagree with their views, I am robbed even of the certainty of uncertainty - for sometimes absolute truths may well be absolute.

He keeps coming back to the topic of abortion throughout the book, which sadly usually shuts down the conversation for most listeners. I think it’s great to see both sides, but sometimes Obama sounds like my students (”Well, both sides are good! Let’s do both!”) or like me trying to decide on Wii Degree or Mario Strikers. Sometimes decisions do have to get made. Obama makes it clear that he is very in-tune with peoples’ freedom. While he lauds the government for infringing the personal rights of slaveholders or invading a company with environmental regulations, he does not believe a woman’s choice should be infringed. I support both the removal of slavery and requiring companies to not toxify my water, but I’m quite sure that there were some slaveholders that didn’t view slaves as humans and that there are some corporations that think human desires outweigh the Earth. When do we choose to infringe and when do we hold back? Decisions do get made.

But the broader issue here is: Do women have the right to make these profoundly difficult decisions? And I trust them to do it. There is a broader issue: Can we move past some of the debates around which we disagree and can we start talking about the things we do agree on? Reducing teen pregnancy; making it less likely for women to find themselves in these circumstances.

Can’t the corporations make decisions of their own in good conscience about where we all live? Won’t school board members want to racially/economically integrate their schools naturally? Sometimes intervention is necessary. But yes I do agree with him when he says that there are things that we can agree on, like preventing teen pregnancy as a shared goal. How we reach that goal is where the divide happens. But it is good to try and get past extremes, to listen to each other, and see where we can work together. (Even if he does clump the NRA and the National Right to Life together.)
It’s interesting that he still thinks of children not yet born when he says we have an “obligation to children not yet born whom we are saddling with debt.”

Another thing that made me think was his comparison to Scripture (he uses the word “Scripture”) to the Constitution. I think I get what he was saying that we can read the journals and reflections of the Founding Fathers, but I do not agree with him that to understand “Timothy and Luke” (his choices) we would need an intermediary. (By the way: people ask about his background and his religion in Yahoo! Answers all the time, but the answers are actually pretty easy to find. He lists himself as black but his mom is white and his dad is black. He also lists himself as a member of the United Church of Christ. He was born in Hawaii but spent his early years in the 60s in Indonesia.)

I think it should be mentioned that Carter, Ford, Ferraro, and McCain (you know, the guy running for president) put together Project Vote Smart. Pretty cool stuff.

This quote from Obama (since I can’t hate the guy) is funny:

Few people end up being United States senators by accident; at a minimum, it requires a certain megalomania, a belief that of all the gifted people in your state, you somehow are uniquely qualified to speak on their behalf…

I wish more senators would admit to their megalomania. At least Luthor has come to grips with his Metropolis/world domination.

The Haiku:

Complaining always

Re-electing the rascals

Ninety-six percent

As much as we hate politicians, we hate change even more.