Planet Sillicon

He’s aggravated!?

By blog on Feb. 15, 2010.

I’m aggravated, and I frankly think he oughtn’t be!

Every now and then I go and check George R R Martin’s ‘Not A Blog’ to see how much longer I’ll be waiting for a book that he said would be done within a year, five years ago! In perusing his previous posts, I noticed an irritated mini rant at his blog readers, and I had to investigate.

It turned out that back on the 29th of January, Martin posted a very brief, and rather vague in my opinion, blog post that was titled ‘A Good Day, With Snow‘ and the only contents of said post was ”nuff said’ and the mood listed at the bottom was ‘accomplished’. Now, I took this to mean he’d finished a Jon Snow chapter, but many others didn’t. Comments poured in on the post congratulating Martin for finishing the book, and excitement rose to see when the book would hit the stores. There were also many others like myself who took this post to mean that George had just finished a chapter, but it was easy to see where some had gotten the wrong idea.

The following day, George posted another blog entry, but this one had a lot more in it. This mini rant, entitled ‘No, No, No‘ – as if admonishing a naughty child or disobedient dog – was having a go at his blog readers for trying to ‘decode’ his previous post and assuming that it meant that A Dance With Dragons was done. He made a comment about this being why he hated to make updates, and that all he was saying was that he’d had a particularly good day of writing. To that I say, for a person who makes their livelihood off of communication, he should be able to readily understand why his ambiguous post got the hopes up of many readers.

Quite frankly, the idea of Martin being aggravated with us, his readers, for the understandable assumption that that terribly obscure post meant that the next ASoIaF book was finished is quite preposterous. Sure, I thought it was quite clearly about Jon Snow, but it’s much like an optical illusion, it’s easy to see two different images contained in the small amount of information given in that post.

The fact that fans of this series have had to wait five years for the second half of the last book is bloody ridiculous. The first in the series was released back in 1996, and at that point it was set to be a trilogy. Book two was released in 1999, book three in 2000, and book four in 2005. We are now to expect seven books in the series, but if Martin keeps this writing pace up – and lack of focus, in my opinion – we’ll be waiting on the final instillation till 2020!

Game of Thrones – Filming

By blog on Nov. 2, 2009.

Filming has begun for the series, and I’ve very mixed feelings, but anticipating nonetheless.

Okay, to explain where I’m coming from… If you’ve seen Rome, which is sort of an equivalent to this series in terms of production values, and the production group – HBO – but I have to say that many of the actors are of a much better calibre than Rome, anyway, back to my point. If you’ve seen Rome, you’ll know what I mean when I say there are moments of complete cringing. It could be a line in the dialogue here, or a gesture there, but sometimes you are ripped so forcibly from your tentatively shallow level of immersion that all of a sudden you realise you’re watching a bunch of guys prancing about in little dresses, taking themselves very seriously…

It’s not like that all the time, and I think Deadwood didn’t quite have this going so much as Rome – again, made by same group, HBO – but I’m still very highly aware of the fact that that just because these are great books, doesn’t mean they’ll make a great TV series… Can you imagine watching some of the stuff that happens in that book in the form of a TV show? I’m concerned I’m going to feel like I’m watching a school play the whole time. The seriousness of whether or not Jon will be allowed to go and join the Night’s Watch or not… yeah, goodness me I hope all the actors really do this well, and that the sets work and everything.

So far all the filming has been completed in Scotland, at Doune Castle in Scotland to be precise, which is where they shot all the scenes that took place in the courtyard of Winterfell. Next they move onto Paint Hall Studio in Belfast which is where everything will be shot, except the stuff that’s supposed to be happening in Pentos and all that, which is being shot in Morocco.

So yeah, I respect many of the actors involved in this, but still feel like I’ll be wearing a grimace throughout the entirety of the first episode.

Pleasant surprise

By blog on Sep. 19, 2009.

I’ve written before about my mother, and her move into a retirement community earlier this year. Well this weekend my SO and I finally made it out there to visit her.

When my mother moved into this community earlier this year, she sold her home. This has left her with an even nicer nest egg than she already had, which I’m rather grateful for. I like to know that she is set to live in the nice community she moved into for about two decades before there’s any concern about paying for everything.

Whilst visiting her, she told me that she had gotten a stack of forms in the mail asking her to sign off on the renewal of her home insurance and contents insurance. She thought this wildly funny, and even applied for a building and contents home insurance quote, though I think she just meant for a home and contents insurance in one package.

Once they got around to processing her quote, they soon realised their folly, that she no longer owned a home, and politely told her she didn’t need their services anymore.

So that was that, and my little old mother seemed to think this the best prank of the year! She has an endearing sense of humour. She then told me that I must close my eyes and put out my hands. She used to do this when I was a child and she was giving me a surprise. It didn’t matter what magnitude of surprise we are talking about, from my favourite chocolate bar to a SNES game I’d been wanting, it was our routine.

Sitting at her nice little table, with it’s white lace cloth, I put my hands on the table, palms up, with my eyes closed. My SO was grinning like a Cheshire cat at me, so I had a feeling they were in cahoots. My mother placed into my hands three smooth plastic cases, and when I opened them, I found to my utmost surprise that she had bought me three PS3 games from the list I just happen to keep on my computer of games I intend to get in the future. LittleBigPlanet, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, and Metal Gear Solid 4.

I knew then that she must have asked my SO for the titles of some games I wanted, and I was just stoked to get them back and try ‘em out. My mother told me that she had decided to do something nice for me when her insurance renewal came around, because it reminded her of how much I’d helped in selling her house for her and making sure it all worked out nicely.

Ahh, isn’t it nice with the generation gap can so easily be bridged? It doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does, it’s very refreshing.

Casting for ASOIAF continues

By blog on Sep. 10, 2009.

I’ve one more cast member to announce, and general frustration with George to complain about, too.

I noticed on George’s blog a few days ago that Cersei Lannister has been cast, and will be played by Lena Headey. Now, obviously they will have to give her golden hair and green contacts, but I think this is a very good casting choice for Cersei, actually. Doesn’t this lady look like she could play an evil calculating so-and-so? I think so, and it’s nice to see that the casting is still going pretty well.

There are more pictures of the two Stark girls, too, up on George’s Not A Blog, and they really do fit the parts of Arya and Sansa, if you ask me. I was concerned about these characters, because finding good child actors can be very difficult, one imagines, but George said Arya especially blew the competition out of the water. That sounds like Arya spirit to me.

I was watching season six of 24 recently, with Boothe Powers as the President, and I think this actor could fit in so very well in the SoIaF world, he looks and sounds just right. It’s funny, but I couldn’t say exactly which character – have to be ‘bad’ or ruthless one – but I think he’d be a great addition to the show.

Now, just for a little bit of a complain, because it wouldn’t feel right to leave this out… George has been talking about writing more on A Dance with Dragons… about tackling a certain portion of the book, and not getting anywhere with it… Well, and this is a restrained version of what I want to say… What the hell is going on!? I want to write in all capitals right now, but I will refrain… George! Stop spreading your attentions over fifty bloody projects and get this bloody book bloody-well published! You told your fans when you released the last one that Dance was more than half done, which later turned into a third done, which meant this should have taken half to a third of the time of the last one! But no, NO! The last book came out October 2005! The one before that August 2000, so by my estimation of time and what he said, this book should have been out at latest early last year… We are looking to hit 2010 before Dance with Dragons is actually released, and I can’t help but feel this is due in part because of George’s lack of focus.

I know that it’s hard to write a book, to write a short story let alone a novel, but when you’re running off to write graphic novels and other things, it’s going to take even longer. It’s just so annoying. Respect the people who love your work. This is part of the reasons why Malazan makes into my top five favourite series, Erikson gets books written in a fifth of the time, and they are just as epic, larger in scale even, that Song of Ice and Fire, and as interesting in terms of storylines. Too depressing, I will admit, but Westeros has more than it’s fair share of that, too!

Sleep deprevation increases humour

By blog on Aug. 22, 2009.

That sounds like an odd thing to say, but I’m quite serious, it does. I’m sure you’ve noticed than when you’re awake for a really long time, or have had too little sleep, what was once mildly funny is now riotously funny? Well, I have…

I love that about being tired, it’s about the only upside. Earlier today I was on I Can Has Cheez Burger and noticed they were self-promoting for a new site, Comixed, which is another of their funny caption sites, taking seemingly innocuous pictures, and in this case, stringing them together with funny captions to form an almost comic strip like effect.

These are actually quite good, and the comments aren’t quite as inane as those sadly found on I Can Has Cheez Burger and the dog version, I Has A Hotdog, which are so mind bogglingly stupid that I have to steer clear of them lest I surge into a total Nerd Rage. There are of course the ongoing references to internet memes, as with this comix here, and a few humerous ones of easy target, Sarah Palin.

Now, whilst I was viewing this site, I happened to have had about three and a half hours sleep the night before. This gives anyone a bent to either being angry and laughing, I’ve found, and I can switch between both quite quickly. My SO was busy with something that required I not be overly noisy, she was working, so I was quietly stuffing around on the internet filling in time. Once I happened upon this site, and viewed page after page, I couldn’t help myself. I was laughing out loud, I was guffawing, I was choking back laughter behind poorly concealed snorts.

I was also missreading and miss-seeing things, which is fun. What is a chair turned away from you, seen from the corner of your eye, suddenly becomes a four foot Buttercup from the Powerpuff Girls hovering in mid air, and what is actually a can in the fridge with the words ‘Health Benefits’ written on it becomes ‘Health Brain Fish’ when one reads it too quickly.

So yes, it’s almost fun to go around sleep deprived, so long as I don’t drive or try to do anything that’s actually important.

A Game of Thrones – The Cast

By blog on Aug. 19, 2009.

HBO will soon be shooting the pilot of the TV series of George R R Martin’s epic fantasy novel A Game of Thrones.

Now, I think these books, A Song of Ice and Fire, are the best fantasy series I’ve ever read. I’ve read a lot, and these are the best, in my opinion, so far. That’s a pretty big call, but I’m making it. The people behind this series are the same who created Deadwood and Rome; two good shows, in their own ways. Today I’m going to outline my response to each of the announced cast choices. George R R Martin also said on his Not a Blog recently that six more characters are about to be cast, but we will have to wait some time for the announcements. When they are announced, I will do a follow up post. I’m interested to see how this series works out, because as I said, this is an amazing book they are working with, and Martin has even been involved with the screen plays, I believe he is writing one episode himself. Now, onto the cast and my impressions!

Sean Bean will do quite well as Eddard Stark, in my opinion. He voiced Martin from The Elder Scrolls Oblivion game quite well, and the character has a similar sense of… rigidity or dourness, so I think this was a good choice.

Peter Drinklage as Tyrion Lanister will be awesome, I think. Drinklage has a tenacious and sardonic personality in many of his roles, and I think this will suit The Imp so very well.

Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn Stark will work very well, even as Elizabeth Bennett in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice she had an austere coldness that I think will work wonders – now that she is older – as cold and hateful Catelyn. I dislike Catelyn intensely.

I’ve never seen Kit Harington in anything before, but he looks okay for the part. I would have liked to have seen someone perhaps a little longer in the face, but this serves, and there could be – with hair and make-up – similarities brought out with him and Sean Bean.

Mark Addy as Robert Baratheon is interesting… I’ve no doubt he can play it, I just envision him as being… bigger, swarthier, and at least somewhat intimidating… But I still think this will work out well.

Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon I’m not sure about because I can’t see a picture of him that is anything like recent on the net, so I don’t know. It’s going to take a good actor to portray that horrid little abomination.

Harry Lloyd as Viserys Targaryen… he seems too old, to me. This one sticks out a bit… but with a lot of alterations, silver hair, lilac eyes, maybe it’ll work.

So far only the pilot is sure to be shot, but if the reception is good enough, more could follow, and I for one, bloody hope so!

Top 25 PC Games According to IGN – Part 2

By blog on Aug. 13, 2009.

Now for 15 through 6 is IGN’s top 25 PC games…

15) Command & Conquer – This is an alright RTS game, in my opinion, but there are others I prefer. Often the themes are less appealing to me than those you would find in Age of Empires, Total War, or Star Craft games.

14) Company of Heroes – Somehow I completely missed this game, but it looks pretty damn good. I may have to retract what I said in the above comments regarding RTS games with real-world settings.

13) The Sims – I really did enjoy The Sims when it first came out, and, thanks largely to my SO’s enjoyment of the game, had nearly all the expansions by the time Maxis moved onto The Sims 2, and oh, wasn’t that annoying? There’s so much to like about this game, yet so much to dislike about those who market it.

12) World of Warcraft – This is my blog so I get to say what I like. I hate this game, it looks like crap, it lacks depth, character, and respect for it’s players, a startlingly large percentage of which seem to be idiots.

11) SimCity – This was a great game, so much fun, so hard to stop playing in spite of a pretty simple premise.

10) Call of Duty – I’ve never really felt any desire to play any of the Call of Duty games, in spite of the raving reviews the series usually receives. I think it’s the setting, I just don’t find myself interested in it.

9) MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat – I didn’t play this game, and only have a vague recollection of it.

8 ) Rome: Total War – These games are always just amazing fun, and usually just as amazing (for their time) graphics wise. These games actually push my graphic cards (I always try to have good ones) and that is another fun side to playing them for me, personally.

7) Sid Meier’s Pirates! – I’ve played later versions of this game, but never the original, and from what I’ve read, the later ones don’t stand up to how good the original was.

6) Half-Life – I didn’t play Half Life, but Half Life 2 was a fantastic game. I enjoyed it so much, I thought the game was just the right combination of on foot and vehicle levels, I liked the accuracy of the weaponry and the story-line was fun too. Unfortunately I had a fatal error in my version and didn’t get past the first few areas of Part 2. I think it was a corrupted texture, but didn’t get around to reinstalling and going further.

The last five will be in the next post, because I think they deserve a post of their own.

Notions of Malazan

By blog on Jul. 24, 2009.

If you haven’t read Toll the Hound, book 8 of the Malazan book of the Fallen series, or don’t intend to read it, then this post won’t really make much sense to you, but it should still be interesting nonetheless.

I am about half way through the book, yes, it has been a long time in the reading, and I don’t know… some things are just still bothering me. For instance, I just found out that The Dying God and The Crippled God are not the same person, and here I was the whole while thinking this Dying God was just The Crippled God playing at a new trick. But no, The Dying God is Bellurdan… as in husband of Nightchill, former Elder Goddess, and whose soul (at least a part of it) went in with Tattersail’s in the formation of Silverfox, the only living Bonecaster… That has got to come to some confrontation at some point, but maybe not, and what’s with Aranantha? Why is this girl strong enough (magically) to overpower Bullurdan as The Dying God? I’m happy that she did, but I am looking forward to some explanation. I have a suspicion, which could be way off, that she is in some way connected to Mother Dark (an incarnation of her in physical form?) and perhaps the reunion of the Tiste Andii and Mother Dark… not sure, just a suspicion.

Something that has really bothered me through this book is the depravity that has gone on as a result of The Dying God… the living scarecrows dancing in the fields, dripping that horrid Selmankelyk, which then everyone is drinking? I think this is just a little too horrifying, even for Malazan.

I have to say, I’m rather pleased that Itkovian will have Seerdomin for company, it was so sad to realise how lonely Itkovian had been.

On another note, here is a list of things I’m looking forward to/hoping for in this book; learning who Traveller is, seeing how Apsalara will get out of Dragnipur, – which I think, by the way, is a house of the Azath, I mean, that’s what is riding in the giant wagon – hopefully seeing more of the Elder God who built the Azath Houses, because he seemed awesome, seeing Nimander’s group reunited with the rest of the Tiste Andii, finding out what the go with Aranantha is, seeing more of Harllo and his awesome Imas friend, seeing what’s left of the Malazan army kick the crap out of that nasty idiot who hired the assassins to have them killed, Cutter getting the hell over himself, and hopefully seeing more of the ghost ascended Malazans.

So, I’m really enjoying certain aspects of the book, but as I said, I really hate what’s going on with The Dying God… I really hope he just dies already.