I’ve been anticipating Cory Doctorow’s latest novel for half a year now, since I first heard of it. It’s a young adult novel in which some innocent kids get picked up by Homeland Security for suspicion of involvement in a terrorist act. After the treatment they receive, the decide it’s time to bring back the Bill of Rights and use home-grown technology to fight the government. The novel is filled with actual tech and counter-tech plans and ideas.

I just listened to an interview with Doctorow on the Adventures in Scifi Publishing podcast:

♦ AISFP 48 - Cory Doctorow

In which they talk about the fascist techniques and outlook of the U.S. and U.K. these days, the new book, and also publishing. It’s interesting to hear how Doctorow supports and defends book publishers as being on the side of the writer and the reader, as opposed to music companies who you would think by the way they treat artists and fans were out to destroy them. Considering how much his book publisher, TOR, supports Doctorow giving away books they sell, for free on his Web site–they must be supportive! Random House has the audiobook rights and are willing to provide it in non-DRMA crippled MP3 format! Book publishers are cool. Anyway, you can listen to all this on the podcast.

Before the interview the hosts discuss Bush’s 2009 budget proposal which would defund the long-running Reading is Fundamental program:

♦ Bush’s ‘09 Budget Eliminates RIF Funding

The hosts, bless their naive hearts, seem shocked by this. They don’t seem to understand that to Milton Friedman worshiping corporate-owned capitalist fascists, a literate and educated populace is the enemy. A strong middle-class, a literate masses, can recognize and understand what’s going on around them, and are able to use the system to “fight the power,” and hinder the neo-con (and not a small number of Democrats) attempt to turn the government into a corporate controlled oligarchy. This is why the Bush administration has been trying hard for seven years to get rid of (or at least control using neo-con loyalist lackies) PBS and NPR, have been sabotaging public education system, promoting abstinence-only programs which are proven to be ineffective, have tried to get rid of the public education mandate of NASA. To these people, the purpose of the populace are to be wage-slaves and spend what little free time they have watching mindless garbage and not thinking, especially not critically and not for themselves. Bush’s attempt to get rid of the program which provides books and promotes literacy among the poor and at-risk kids is just another in his long line of attempts to transorm the American people into mindless peasants.

It’s really sad, and in a way is reflective of how my life has been going.

I used to be a voracious reader. I was introduced to the works of Poe, Bradbury, and Lovecraft around the 3rd grade. I was hooked on scifi and horror ever since.

In jr. and high school I read a novel just about every other day. As an undergrad, it slowed because I actually had school work and theatre to do, but I still constantly read for pleasure. Then, nearly as soon as I graduated and I entered the work-a-day world, that came to a sudden stop. I might have read maybe maybe two fiction novels a year. From no less than one a week to one a year is an astronomical change. And my life was kind of in auto-pilot.

I suppose it’s more complex than that, to be honest. I blame the Internet. It was about that time that we (the wife and I) got hooked on Internet chatting, Web browsing, Minesweeper (well, for her. For me it was the latest 1st-person shooter game). As I think about this now that I type (which is often the case–I rarely think about things before I spew the results) it wasn’t an entirely bad thing. The Internet chatting ended up leading toward socializing in real life with more people as well (something which also stopped after I graduated). And socializing is good! For my fiction, there’s a little bit to be had in some computer games, superficially.

Well, then came a couple of years ago. (Too bad I never edit my spewing. I don’t want to reread that last sentence, but I know it was atrocious!) Things started moving and shaking. I came to certain “spiritual” realities which “fit” with what and who I am like a tailored glove. Where before, for years, I was an existential wreck, constantly worrying about the Nature of God and sin and afterlife and trying to make sense of revealed “Truths” of religion with the revealed truths of all other religions–and eventually found what I believe is to be truth that makes complete and utter, perfect sense! And that realization (revelation? *eg*) made it feel like I had a bunch of jumbled pieces inside me that had been rattling around and grinding on each other for years, and then they all suddenly clicked snuggly in place. And I felt internally whole and alive and awake. (To borrow a phrase, but it works.)

Then I realized that I needed to get my education and career back on track. Got into grad school, and immediately, in that first semester, came upon some socio-political concepts that were troubling and weird and disturbing–much like the concepts which lead me to “religious understanding,” It took me a while to play with them and research them and start to understand them, but they eventually brought me to understanding certain socio-political “truths” that I’ve come to embrace as “right.” (The religious understandings took me about…seventeen years to come to where I am, and once the click happened, I knew it was right. These socio-political beliefs are more slippery. There’s a LOT more room for subjectivity and opinion–after all, religious “truths” are or they aren’t. Socio-political “truths” are human-created ideas and so can have all kinds of spectrum of right/wrong, works/fails, etc. I know I will always be a secular-humanist because there’s objective truth in it, but I may not always be an anarcho-socialist as I am now. And even what that means is subject to change.)

And then I also learned in the process what my career goals are right for me. It used to be amorphous and uncertain, based first on just continuing my undergrad studies (which granted, I was interested in! But I kind of fell into it based on what department was willing to give me the most funding). Then I went into grad school this last time with a plan closer to what I felt I wanted–which it was and I did. Literary studies. But then I learned that it was indeed possible to focus on scifi/fantasy (speculative fiction) as a subject, and I gained a HUGE interest in cultural studies that I had no idea that I had a passion for before.

My daughter is now at that wonderful age where she’s bright and creative and full of hope and joy, and not yet hating her parents and hanging out with “wrong” people and doing things to rebel. The wifey-poo and I doing well and unless I decide I have to get my doctorate in Canada (which is increasingly likely), we’ll only get better. So, things are good right now.

Which means I’m reading again! Actually, I have no idea how the two topics relate. That’s the problem with stream-of-consciousness writing. I’m reading more again because of grad school, I would say, except even last year I didn’t read as much for pleasure. Sure, I read non-fiction here and there, and a TON for class work, but I still didn’t read novels except for class. This year: so far in about six weeks, I’ve read:

Cory Doctorow’s Eastern Standard Tribe
Doctorow’s Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War
Steven Brust’s My Own Kind of Freedom
halfway through Vernor Vinge’s Rainbows End
started David Marusek’s Counting Heads
read some stories out of Rewired

I suppose I’m being a little disingenuous–I’m reading/have read most of the above partly for research on my work in posthumanism–but sort of. If I wanted to, I could skim them, find what I need, read others’ research on them. But I actually primarily read for pleasure, and I’ve missed doing so. I’m also reading again because I’m writing fiction again–something I haven’t done in quite some time. And to be able write colorfully and interestingly, one needs to be reading, especially various genre and styles. And already I can tell getting back into the world of playing with words is improving my own work.

Ah, speaking of Brust’s “Firefly” novel: Remember back in my post Thoughts on this year’s ICFA where I discuss my trepidation about fanfic and fiction written in a pre-existing world developed and made “living” by actors? Well, Brust’s My Own Kind of Freedom continues the method of pulling direct quotes and actions from the show/film to create archtype representations of the characters. Except in, I believe it was chapter 11. Brust suddenly has a burst (heh) of inspiration, and his characters came alive for most of a chapter, without the need of copy-and-pasted lines and actions. Captain Mal was Mal, his dialog fit the character created by Joss Whedon and Nathon Filion without being a copy of the character. It suddenly became like I was watching (reading) a lost episode as opposed to someone trying to create an episode out of bits and pieces. I got excited reading that chapter: “Yes! Here we go. Now we’re cookin’!”

Sadly, the inspiration left, and the rest of the novel lapsed back into auto-pilot. Interesting plot, but utterly 2-dimensional characters.

Which is sad, for me, because one of the reasons Brust is one of my all-time favorite authors is because of his characters. In the early Vlad Taltos books, I completely believed Vlad. When he left his love (or she left him…can’t remember now which), I literally cried. When in book six he switched from 1st-person narration to 3rd and focused on a different set of characters, I literally threw the book across the room because I was so involved with the characters he’d created in 1 through 5, getting rid of them felt the same as their dying. So, it kind of saddens me.

Well, this post was an explosion of pointless drivel. I’m sorry for you having read it. Please email me and I will see if I have some “few minutes out of my life” I can try to give back to you. No promises, however.

(And still, the weird problem remains with using “from” too many times. I swear, the blog refuses to post unless I change some of the “from”s to “frm”. It must be some kind of bug in the module that tries to detect SQL injections, is the best I can figure.)

Yesterday I posted some of my thoughts on the ICFA after having just returned from it. I left out a lot. I’ll try to go vaguely chronologically and hit highlights.

OK, Wednesday:
I hate flying. But the flight down was fine.
The car rental place had no VW Bugs and I so wanted one! *sigh-pout*
I got a little lost trying to find my hotel, decided to give that up and go right to the conference, and made it to the opening panel at exactly one minute before it began!
Don’t recall much about the opening panel…except Brian Aldiss read an interesting poem of his that seemed to exemplify the idea of “sublime” (the theme for this year’s conference.

Brian Aldiss is an interesting fellow. Long time, well awarded, knighted, writer primarily in science fiction. Wrote the short story that inspired the film A.I.. (I’m sorry, but I absolutely loved that movie! Speaking of Aldiss and the movie, there was a session that included a paper by Andrew M. Gordon, author of (among other books) Empire of Dreams: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Films of Steven Spielberg, in which he defended the ending of the movie. Thank the gods! I’m one of the only persons I know who loved the ending because I see it completely differently than most people, and Mr. Gordon defended it succinctly and effectively: Most people see the ending as a sappy, Spielberg ending, and creepy because of the apparent Oedipal evocation. But that mistaken apprehension of the ending is what makes the ending all the more tragic and sad! It’s a very, ironically, tragic ending in which a fake boy programmed for obsession has his “perfect day” with a fake mommy in a staged environment set up by fake lifeforms who worship the missing human race and believe they will come closer to knowing humanity through this simulacra. And Spielberg intentionally and skillfully crafted this treacherously misleading ending. God, just writing this makes me sad. Gordon of course went into these issues at great length with superb presentation, and I believed he took a room full of people who dismissed A.I. out of scoffing hand, and may have changed some minds, or at least got people thinking. Brava!)

(more after the “fold”…)
Read the rest of this entry »

My wife, daughter and I returned from Orlando, Florida yesterday after a 5-day vacation. It was simply amazing! It exceeded all my expectations, fulfilled nearly none of my fears or worries, and quite simply–I didn’t want to leave. Even now I feel a mixture of happiness and elation as well as depressed longing as the memories begin to fade and the acceptance of being back in the mundane and troubling “real world” sets in. More on that later.

Now, I’m going to try to describe the experience chronologically:
Arrival and Animal Kingdom
Magic Kingdom
Kennedy Space Center, Shuttle Launch, & the Beach
Afterthoughts
(Picture sets, probably Flickr, to come soon.)

(continues below the fold)
Read the rest of this entry »

I finally got a new post up on my “scholarly” blog:

♦ The Ubiquitous and Panasonic Kipple: Tracing the Consumption of Death, from Philip K. Dick to Don DeLillo’s White Noise

Kind of sad, really–I have several papers and essays already written and ready, all I have to do is format them and post them, but I can’t seem to do that in a timely manner. =)

(Insert Keanu Reeves’ “Whoa” here.)
BoingBoing just posted a link to a fascinating paper on the theory that our universe is a giant VR system:

♦ Our universe as virtual reality

…If the universe were a virtual reality, its creation at the big bang would no longer be paradoxical, as every virtual system must be booted up. It is suggested that whether the world is an objective reality or a virtual reality is a matter for science to resolve. Modern information science can suggest how core physical properties like space, time, light, matter and movement could derive from information processing….

The linked PDF has some mind-blowing (and easy to read) info and cosmological theory regarding equating the max data transfer speed in our universe, lightspeed, with max computational processing and similar issues of physics in our time-space with analogs in artificial data processing.

But then, there’s some “reality” checks, so to speak, from some commentors like:

Lord Occam walks in the room “Enough!” snip! “There ya go, kids. You’re objectively real as far as you’ll ever know. Now get back to work on something important.”

OK, so my 3rd blog is up and running now:

♦ The GrogMonkey

Here’s the “About” page on the site:

This blog is designed to feature my work in English/Cultural Studies education.

I’m currently working on my Master’s Degree in English with a focus on Creative Writing. While I don’t plan, at the moment, to put any of my fiction up here, I do plan on publishing my non-fiction works–of which I’ve done more this last year and a half than I would have thought I’d have in me two years ago. After my M.A,, which should be finished in another year and a half, I plan on going on for my Ph.D. with a focus in posthuman fiction and cultural studies. (Over on another page I plan on profiling some of the people in the field that I’m modeling my career path on, such as Slavoj Žižek.)

I plan on submitting some of what I will be placing on this site to journals (both academic peer reviewed and otherwise), and some I wouldn’t normally want anyone to see–but there may be something to it that compels me to put it out there for critique, entertainment, or for some twisted sense of vanity. (Yeah, that’s probably the most likely reason.)

I encourage anyone to read what I’ve put out, comment, and even debate or argue some of the presented points with me. Some of what I’ve written and will write about I’m only scratching the surface of my understanding and would love to better my apprehension of the subjects in the crucible of debate (how’s that for some fancyshmancy grad student prose?)

While this blog is pretty esoteric and comments on general issues: tech, news, politics, etc., The GrogMonkey is going to be only for my scholarly work. Probably mostly reprints of papers, occasional posts on issues and events that deal directly with my studies and education. I anticipate that site will have even a smaller audience (than the 2 or 3 this one gets…) but that’s OK. I’m doing it mainly for my own benefit. (What that benefit is, I don’t quite know yet.)

At the moment there’s only one post up there. I have probably around 10 to 15 papers I can upload, but I don’t want to inundate the site just now–I’ll probably upload a file a week. If you’re interested, check it out.

I’m so lucky to have been born in a wealthy capitalist western society. If I have to be born in a pre-worldwide socialist era, this is where I want to be. (Oh, one day thanks to technology, nano-tech, etc., we’ll be able to advance the world beyond criminal and soul stupefying capitalism and world-wide poverty and suffering, to a state of socio-political harmony and self-actualization. Until then, I’ll enjoy my air conditioning and MP3 player and rail against capitalist ideology like only white privileged college-educated elitists can. But hey, even Marx said capitalism was a necessary step on the path to communism (true communism, by the way, not the f’ed-up fascist Stalinism that Stalin instigated using a perverted and bastardized form of Trotskyism mixed with totalitarian extremism that became the USSR. Soviet Russia is as much a true socialist society as the Connecticut born-and-bred rich kid W. Bush is a good ol’ boy rancher. But I seriously digress….)

So today I got two wonderful boons to my world of entertainment: The special “ultimate” collector’s 5-disk edition of Blade Runner, and a used Guitar Hero guitar controller.

The guitar was an incredible find. It’s that one I just linked to, highly rated, and regularly runs $60 (if you get it without a game.) GameStop gets used ones in very rarely, and when they do, they’re gone like that! I happened to be in a store buying a gift for a nephew, and happened to ask if they had one…and they did for $20! (Insert “Bill & Ted” air-guitar riff here.) I love the Guitar Hero games! They’re fun, even fun to watch someone else play, exciting, don’t require a huge expenditure in time and attention (like RPG’s and strategy games do, which I also LOVE but just can’t devote any time to lately,) and a great way to unwind after work.
Now, I just need to get one of the games!

The Blade Runner set was also a deal! It normally retails for $80. But after the Barnes & Noble online discount, Member discount, online coupon, and a Christmas gift card, I ended up paying only $8! I’m a huge Blade Runner fan, ever since seeing it at 11 as a wide-eyed kid. It completely changed my entire concept of sci-fi (as it did for a lot of people) and the anticipation of the future itself. Plus it had elements of questioning “what is it to be ‘human’” that even that messed-up theatrical release was able to relate, that really got me at that young age. So perhaps it’s no wonder that now that I’m older, I am absolutely in love with the works of Philip K. Dick (who wrote the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep on which Blade Runner is based) who investigates that theme in much of his work, as well as the question of subjective reality.

What’s so special about this special edition? Well, aside from all the coolio extras like art and prints, models, cool case, and a signed letter from director Ridley Scott, and documentary extras like interviews with P.K. Dick (glee!), but also a true director’s version of the film, the “final cut.” (The misnamed “Director’s Cut” wasn’t. The studio, eager to cash in on the growing demand for extended and director’s cut DVD’s years ago, threw together an altered version of the film, with at least a couple of nods to Scott’s desires: the originally intended ambiguous ending and the lack of the cheesy Harrison Ford voice-over.) This new version has cleaned up some lines that have been muddy and misunderstood for years, fixed a few laugh inducing special effects, cleaned up the print and sound, and restored some elements Scott wanted but the studio didn’t.
I’m giddy with excitement!

Seriously? Are they kidding with this? This is the CIA’s Terrorism Buster logo?

OK, to be fair, that image is on a lapel pin and about 5 times the actual size or so. But c’mon. That’s pretty goofy. And by the way, I didn’t realize you could attach an ancient Middle Eastern saber on the end of an AK-47. That’s pretty talented. Because of course, all terrorists are Middle Eastern, donchya know. Like Ted Kaczynski, the guy who set off bombs as the Atlanta Olympics, the people who set black churches on fire, the Phelps congregation who terrorize families of fallen soldiers, Basque separatist rebels–all Middle Eastern. They’re all Middle Eastern Muslims and they’re all over in Iraq, because we’re fighting all the terrorists there so they don’t come here. Yep. We sure are.

OK, but this post is about bad animation. And my heart was broken today by it.

The latest Slice of Sci Fi podcast had an interview with Tracy Hickman, promoting the upcoming Dragonlance movie. Now, I read the first two trilogies of the Dragonlance series in a 72 hour period back in highschool, and loved them! Especially the second, Twins, trilogy! I laughed, I cried, I felt empty and sad when I finished them. They’re not Shakespeare, but they were incredible to me. And a huge cadre on die-hard fans.

So, when it was announced the first book was being made into a feature movie, there was much celebration. (yeeaah) Not only a feature (albeit animated) film, but with a superb voice cast, there was greater rejoicing! I mean, there is no one better to voice Raistlin than Kiefer Sutherland, I’m sorry. And I heard some of the full orchestral musical score, and it’s great! Imagine my disappointment (and the disappointment of legions of fans… like the sound of thousands of people crying out…) when I heard of the 1st trailer being released, and saw this drek:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UHrOfJ8_D0o
It’s like they ran out of money after hiring Sutherland and the orchestra and had to hire animators who were fired by Hanna & Barbera in the 80’s. It looks like old He-Man cartoons spliced together with a little 3D CGI from mediocre 1990’s games. It makes me cry a little.

I’m still hoping that what this is is some modern version of storyboarding, and we’re not seeing any actual film footage yet. I mean, how in 2007 can you possibly make a movie that looks as bad as 1985 Saturday morning cartoons? You have people making entire live-action films on an Apple PC that look high-production value, and the best they could do with this movie is crummy mass-produced 80’s style made incongruous and schitzo with bad CGI thrown in? Sad sad sad.

So, there’s a show on Sci-Fi channel (remember, that’s science FICTION channel *grin*) called Ghost Hunters, in which some plumbers from Rhode Island use a collection of electronic devices designed for all kinds of things except detecting the supernatural to investigate claims of hauntings.

The latest Skepticality podcast has an interview with the founder of The Skeptical Analysis of the Paranormal Society. Alison Smith started out as a believer in ghosts and the supernatural and a fan of Ghost Hunters. but, being a thinking person, she started having questions about the findings and methodology exhibited in the show. She started collecting the same kind of hardware, EMF detectors, temperature detectors, etc, and recreating the same effects shown in the show–but with mundane causes. After asking too many questions on the Ghost Hunter message board, she was eventually banned. She became a prominent skeptic of ghost hunting and proving that not only can all the events and strange phenomenon shown on the show can be easily faked and in fact, prove that video manipulation has been done on the show to make things look supernatural.

The interview on Skepticality is a great, fun example on how important it is use ones mind and think critically.

The show also has a bit of an “interview” (an unplanned recording of astro-physicist and co-host of Astronomycast, Dr. Pamela Gay) discussing a little of the problem we have dealing with Dark Matter.

It be Talk Like a Pirate Day, today! Arrrgh!

♦ http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html

I’ve been listening to Cory Doctorow reading Bruce Sterling’s The Hacker Crackdown. It’s a non-fiction work that at its core describes the actions and environment that lead up to the huge crackdown by the Secret Service, FBI, and the telco companies against the “hacker threat” during the early 90’s. The work takes a fascinating look at the entire development of the telephone industry and the mentality that lead up to the weaknesses and flaws that allowed crackers and phreakers to take advantage of the system–and the subsequent draconian crackdown.

Listening to it really reminded me of early computer experience. I’ve been working with computers since the Apple II around the mid-80’s, but I didn’t get a modem until about 1994, when the Golden Age was on its decline. Bulletin Board Services (BBS) were still around and I played around on them quite a bit, bit the commercial interests were exploding: AOL, Compuserve, etc. I was a hacker in the sense I loved to play around with systems, tweaking my system, figuring out how to modify programs and write my own scripts, and find out as much information as I could. So while I never became hardcore, I did find a lot of interesting security info, some things like this:

<> The Legion of Doom/Hackers Technical Journal

Information like these “journals” were passed around FIDO and BITNet and the BBS file archives. I remember scanning UUnet and piecing together binary files, and spending ridiculous hours at night with my computer dialed up to remote systems, downloading text files and programs and other stuffs. Then my wife and I discovered things like IRC and I started Web scripting, and I stopped spending as much time learning about cracking and the computer underground. (Although as late at 2001 I was still keeping tabs on the goings-on of groups like Cult of the Dead Cow and L0pht.

In some ways I wish I had been more hardcore and not just a putterer–I might have a comfy high paying corporate security gig right now. But this is OK too, being a bit more eclectic and diversified. But boy, does listening to The Hacker Crackdown bring back some memories.