Month: March 2008

“As for books and TV/movies – I have a rule to never see the movie if I can read the book instead/first. The book is always better.”

I think this is why I reacted so badly to Star Trek Nemesis when it came out. I was bought the book for Xmas/birthday before the film came out and then devoured the book rather quickly. When it came to watching the film, the editing people had cut out all the humour bits leaving behind something rather cold and depressing.

Bit of a disappointment ! It’s made Nemesis join Legend of the Rangers (Babylon 5 spin off) as something that doesn’t belong in a long running series …

PS I’m a Spider solitaire addict at work … It lets me switch my brain into a “no-thought” mode as a break from work stuff 🙂

“…they leave your hands free for popcorn” LOL pete

I can’t comment on games, I only play silly games on pogo.com to slow down my mind.

As for books and TV/movies – I have a rule to never see the movie if I can read the book instead/first. The book is always better.

I’ve been watching rather a lot of telly over my week off, as well as reading around 1000 pages on and off. I’ve managed to avoid the games, although I’ve still played them a little. What I’m thinking about at the moment is the relative merits of the 3 methods of telling a story. I’ll start with games …

The games I like tend to have a strong aspect of Role Play type involved in them. They either follow the story of your character or the story of your empire. The “protagonist” will evolve over time, either expanding as an empire or improving as a character. Almost all games will have a story planned out that guides the evolution of the character, as it gains abilities, weapons or just places to go. However, where most fall down is the amount of variation they allow with games without variation being called Linear. The games that will be remembered have multiple endings or multiple paths to get through to the ending. Each time you play, you’ll have a different story. There’s also a chance for choice, although I almost always go the “good” path and struggle to maintain an “evil” path if the game allows one.

The big drawback of story games though is the effort that needs to be put in to progress. There’s usually a difficulty level built into the game, some games are pitched at a level that’s so high that it gets frustrating. Yes, there may be a cracking story built in there but it can get extremely tedious banging on the shell over and over again to get the chestnuts out. It’s still a decent way of telling a story but needs the difficulty pitched just right to avoid it being an Interactive Movie but also to avoid it being too hard and an exercise in masochism.

On to TV … Telly and film is the lazy way of being told a story, it just involves sitting in front of a screen and allowing the story to wash over you. It has the advantage of allowing timing and hopefully a little originality. The actors and actresses put their own stamp on how the story comes across, although some are better than others. I’ve become a big fan of both House MD and NCIS over the past few months because as well as presenting good stories, they have excellent character interaction. The screen also allows the director to show the imagery required by their story, instead of relying on the imagination. Babylon 5 is an excellent example here of imagery that supported an excellent story, instead of hiding the lack of story that was 10,000 BC.

Trouble with TV and film though is that often the budget will interfere. Either they don’t have the money to afford the imagery, sets or sheer number of people or they can’t fit what they want into the time. The film 300 was excellently paced, it was as long as it needed to be. However, I had a chance to watch again a documentary on the battle of Thermopylae and associated naval battle and again found that documentary to be relying on padding to make it fit its slot of 2 hours with ads. We see also the Star Trek Syndrome, where there will be a problem running through the whole episode, that’s only solved in the last 10 minutes. Or a double episode that’s been split to add in a cliff hanger, even though the story to be told could only really support 1.5 episodes.

There’s a good contrast with the Sharpe stories. There’s a symbiotic relationship here, with the books and TV series depending on each other. The TV series depends on the books to get the story, however the series has no hope of keeping up with the scale of the Napoleonic Era engagements in the books. The TV series relies on adaptations that are of a scale that can be afforded and concentrates on character interaction. The books can go full out with the scale, with the reader’s imagination painting the picture of 10’s of thousands of men facing each other with muskets. The circle of symbiosis comes from the TV series providing publicity for the books, I don’t think there would have been so many Sharpe books without that publicity.

On to books. These can break all the rules that both games and TV have to deal with. The reader’s imagination translates what the author has put on the page and the only limit is the skill of the author at describing what’s happening. Books can also take a break from narrative for a page or two to add in descriptions of the situation, the hardware or the customs. TV and film can’t really do that, except as narration from people on screen. There’s still the chance for fun, although the timing tends to depend on the reader’s speed.

Some authors are better than others though. I’m taking a break from Harry Turtledove’s WorldWar series because I found the first two a bit long and tedious. In comparison, David Weber’s At All Costs was well paced at 900 pages. I’ll still read the WorldWar books but I’ll read some better ones in the meantime. The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks got read through this week, next step is Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds.

Coming full circle, I had a moment of weakness this week and gave Amazon a bit of trade … I acquired the first series of Blakes Seven, which had its first three episodes watched last night. The excuse was me acquiring the D&D Players Handbook, which will see some extended service starting tomorrow night. I covered Role Play Games via computer above but it’s a bit different when you’re playing them with other people, away from the computer influence. It’s a lot more fun, plus the tediousness of computer RPGs gets taken away by a person acting as the Game Master. They’ll interpret the rules, some will try their hardest to kill players 🙂 but they’ll also know that it’s more fun to finish the story which is easier to do with players that are still alive.

TV, games, books all have their place and they all allow a different scope in how they allow their stories to be told. Games are let down by excessive repetition, although the online game Eve is a good leader here because groups of players write the story by which its universe is developing. The developers just write the rules they play by. Games like Warcraft have fixed content that you can only experience if you put an insane amount of time in. TV series often don’t get the time to get the wider story underway, Babylon 5 only just got a 5th season approved and the spinoff Crusade was cynically axed before it had a chance to blossom. For books, sometimes I think that a series will go on a bit too far. Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon series suffered when it sprouted a history that I think broke its self consistency. Other series need to keep raising the stakes until things get a bit silly. I have a feeling this may be where David Weber’s Honor Harrington books will fail, although that point hasn’t been reached just yet. This isn’t just books though, Stargate SG-1 went on for two series too long when it could have ended properly with a season ending time travel episode.

Right – time for a closing bit … I haven’t touched Baldur’s Gate 2 for a good few weeks and I last left my mercenary army on the outskirts of Meduna, preparing for the final push. There’s the story of the escaped prisoners in Blakes 7 to remind myself of plus I’ll be looking to check out Chasm City and an author who I’ve not read before.

Oh – TV and film have one major advantage – they leave your hands free for popcorn !

Our youngest son (he’s 7) consistently wears mismatched socks, and I think it’s delightful that he does. I suspect he gets it from me, because I always used to ask my mom why I had to wear two of the same socks.

As long as the tender little feet are comfy, right? I guess the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Poor kid 🙂

My house needs to be attacked by vacuums and dusters and Mr. Clean – OH MY!

One of the benefits of having a carport is that the delivery guy can leave stuff w/out a signature and it will actually still be there when I get home. I’m sure that’s worth the mortgage payment I can’t afford 🙂

Been off work this week, I definitely needed a break from the office.

Thirteen Things about The Week Off 1…. Week off this week, definitely needed it I think. Easter is a very good excuse and time for getting away from work for a bit, it lets you get enough time to have a worthwhile relax period without using too much leave. 2…. Managed to avoid games a fair bit. However, I did really enjoy hitting the new World of Warcraft instanced dungeon with the Violence Reborn people last night. One of the best people I know was having a last thrash in the game last night and I was honoured to be wanted along by said angel. 3…. Watching cricket live from New Zealand does nasty things to the circadian rhythm. Watching England win at cricket is always worth it. The wins in New Zealand were definitely earned. 4…. Wished I had my microphone active last night, it would have let me join in with the laughing and joking that was coming over the Ventrilo voice communications. 5…. Waiting for Amazon to deliver sucks – it locks you in to the house as otherwise it’s a pain getting to the drop off place. 6…. Extended time off is a good time to catch up on things you’ve missed. House MD is an excellent series. Intensive watching could get you bored with anything, however 3 series in and House is definitely not boring. Lots of good stuff here. 7…. I never seem able to match up certain pairs of my socks together. Hey ! They look just the same 🙂 8…. You need to escape totally from work every once in a while, happily the only work I’ve thought about over the last week has surrounded what’s due to start on Sunday but I can’t actually talk about what’s happening Sunday cos work might get upset with me ;-). 9…. David Weber’s At All Costs has a very spectacular ending. Less games and a telly that’s developed an intermittent high pitched whine has led to me getting into the books heavily again. It’s The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks at the moment. 10.. For a cricket addict, I seem to have developed a distaste for watching West Indies and they’re supposed to be the most exciting to watch. Maybe 10/20 years ago but now there’s no doubt as to who will win. And it’s not West Indies. When the result’s no longer in doubt, my interest definitely scampers away. 11… My diet sucks 🙂 Biscuits, crackers and the occasional bowl of popcorn aren’t the most healthy thing around. Will have to visit the Chinese tonight 🙂 And get me some more supplies in. It’s biscuits and crackers because I haven’t been near a supermarket for over a week. 12… Atypically for a holiday period (and despite the provocation of that NZ vs England cricket!), my circadian rhythm seems to have remained intact. I usually slip into a 3/4am bedtime, 12noon waketime but I’m getting moving at the fairly sensible time of around 9am in the morning at the moment. 13… This house is in dire need of an attack by the vacuum cleaner !

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I’ve been continuing my catching up with House over the weekend, as Hallmark have been repeating season 3. I missed out on House the first time round, which is why I’m catching up now.

Trouble is, my TV has joined the list of things that don’t quite work right around here (I’m at the top of that list !). You know when TVs start making that really high pitched sound that sends cats and dogs mad ? Well, I’m surprised that the local cat (Chronos) still looks in through the back window cos my telly’s been “singing” all weekend. It’s not quite that high pitched because I can still hear it but it’s presence is almost enough to get my brain dribbling out through my nose. Hopefully the sound doesn’t mean the beginning of the end for this telly, it’s probably just complaining at being over worked.

I’m getting relief from it at the moment, as I’m taking a break from TV watching before heading back in for more later. I’m currently 99 pages into Iain M Banks’s novel The Player Of Games. Not bad so far but I warmed more to the general chaos that made Consider Phlebas come to life and the Diziet Sma character in Use of Weapons.

Enough of telly – how come I chose that title for today ? It’s because of these guys :

The top of my TV has been taken over by these draconic reprobates, led by “Another Monday”, who just happens to be the one who forces me to use him as an avatar wherever I have a web presence. One thing about potentially going for an HD telly or any telly to replace the one I have is that it won’t have a conveniently large step on the top to put my dragons on. Tellies aren’t built that way any more.

I have a couple of bookcases that I have Even More Dragons on but things I put up there aren’t quite so visible. Somehow, when I do get a flatter, thinner, shinier telly I don’t think my dwagons will be homeless for too long …

PS The cricket picture that I got in the pic has generated a fair bit of debate in the family 🙂 It’s a cross stitch done by my sister and was a present. The debate is on subjects like “what shot played”, “left hander ?”, “before hit or after hit ?” I have my idea, based on logic but I’d be curious to see more theories 🙂

In my first year at university, we had lots of snow 🙂

So we built a snowman. He was about 6 foot tall … (we rolled balls of snow up and down a hill until they were huge)

Our snowman lasted 3 weeks after the snow melted and people were using him as a meeting point 🙂

So glad that the boiler is behavin’ itself!

I think an Easter Egg Hunt in the snow would be great fun! As long as the eggs are colored.

Make a snowangel 🙂

No need to apologize: I smiled as I read this entire entry! I’ve always been fascinated at how people respond to drastic changes in weather. As a dyed-in-the-wool Canadian, I can’t deny the appeal of an impending snow.

Glad to hear you’re keeping warm. Our furnace blew a major – and expensive – part last year just as winter dawned. It took close to 2 weeks for the part to be shipped…we had to get out of town to avoid freezing at night. Not fun.

Back from Michele’s, and as always, it’s been a joy.