Category: All Things Geek

A blogging friend posted this a little while ago (Say hello to Cafe Book Bean). I’ve loved the Dune books and have always found this to be a fantastic mediation. I’m often prone to anxiety and fear-based paralysis.

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” – Frank Herbert (Dune)

I’m more excited than I should be. This awakens the 10 year old within me, the one whose life forever changed the moment the Star Destroyer flew over Tatooine chasing the Tantive IV. Star Wars has forever dominated my path. Seeing that this is in Imax, I intend to see it at the Pacific Science Center come December.

Well, another attempt at the Godzilla franchise. This one looks pretty powerful, though.

One key weakness of mine of late has been time. Time for such things as film watching. Though I watched such gems as The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I must admit to a key geek failure. One that might strain my geek-cred to a near breaking level. So, here goes: I hadn’t watched the J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot until yesterday. Yep; took me 4 years. FOUR! Sigh…I hang my head in geek shame.

That said, I actually like the film. [Spoiler Alert: (Ok, come on, if you haven’t seen it by now, you really shouldn’t be put off by plot revelations)] I know that will annoy some, and delight others. I liked the way the characters were recrafted. The time-continuum disruption theme was pretty cool. I wondered how they would reconcile the story-line when they killed Spock’s mother. Clever. I particularly like the edgier, closer to human Spock.

I admit that the lens-flare business was a bit distracting at times. However, it’s hard to extract Heisenberg from this (I was familiar with this before seeing the film. I’m sure awareness impacted my attention.) Didn’t negatively impact the film for me, just provided a bit of distraction.

What really caught me, though, was the Leonard Nimoy role. I didn’t know. DIDN’T KNOW!!!! Nope, no idea he was in the film. Yes, that would’ve made me see it sooner. And I’m sure I just missed some obvious marketing message somewhere. But I’m quite disconnected from the mainstream media stream at this point.

I shan’t wait so long to watch “Into Darkness”.

 

Last night I read, as I often do, a Kindle book on my Nexus (The Manga Gen, if you care). The app magnified the particular frame I to be read. “Clever”, I thought to myself. Yet, as I also do often, I wondered “what else can we do with these?” How can the devices transform the reading experience? Some ideas: animation, links within the document, perhaps an audio track? All kinds of quick, off the cuff possibilities. What would be wrought with a focused, detailed analysis? I know there are myriad opportunities, and think it would be grand to be part of that innovation. Who knows…

Just saw this on iO9. Squeee!!!!

The Story Collider podcast has become a deeply integrated into my psyche, and my life. I stumbled  upon the series via Radiolab. On my commute today, I listened to Sara Peters and Peter Aguero’s story about Sara’s epilepsy.  This was very well done: by the end I felt connected to them.

So, I highly recommend you spend a few minutes of your life watching the video below (the podcast was recorded at TedMed 2013, so, thus, you get video). Your life will be the better for it.

(It wouldn’t be a bad idea to subscribe to Story Collider, too. Just sayin’.) 

I don’t watch network TV much anymore, so missed this.

Thank goodness for the YouTube.

Enjoy your mind-growth moment of the day.