As 2014 Ends, Let's Look Into The Future (Of Movies)

Specifically, I've been meaning, for awhile, to post a calendar of upcoming films that I'm looking forward to or am otherwise intrigued by.  These are mostly superhero flicks but with a few other types thrown in for good measure.

2015

May 1st - Avengers: Age of Ultron - This is probably my most eagerly-anticipated entry on this list, as Ultron has long been one of the scariest Avengers villains, and of course the first Joss Whedon-directed film was unbelievably cool.  The fact that they've retained all of the original characters and added Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet Watch makes me very happy.  I sincerely hope not to be disappointed by the sequel, and for now I'm confidently placing my faith in Joss.

June 12th - Jurassic World - I want this to be good, even though the previous Jurassic offering was pretty crappy.  The original, on the other hand, like the book it was based on, was quite excellent.  I'll wait and see what the early reviews on this one are like before committing any cash to it.

July 1st - Terminator: Genisys - I'm a sucker for the Terminator franchise, having seen each of the films many times and sticking with the TV show right to the bitter end.  This film came about after the rights were sold off to the highest bidder, I believe, which makes it an interesting experiment, if nothing else.

July 17th - Ant Man - Marvel Studios can seem to do no wrong lately, as even Guardians of the Galaxy was much better than I'd expected.  I liked GotG well enough as I watched it, though I've yet to have any desire to see it again.  I expect Ant Man may fall into the same category, although anything with Evangeline Lily in it usually warrants a second look, so who knows.

August 7th - Fantastic Four - This is either going to be an utter train wreck or something quite... fantastic, I think.  It's a reboot, which isn't bad in and of itself considering how lackluster the two previous FF movies were.  However, I've read just enough about its setup and approach to cause me to scratch my head, as it doesn't appear to stick at all closely to what's been done in the 50+ years of comic stories.  If I had to put money down right now, I'd put it on train wreck.  Happy to be proven wrong, though.

December 18th - Star Wars: The Force Awakens - As someone who thoroughly enjoyed the prequels, I clearly don't have the highest standards (or expectations, at least) when it comes to Star Wars installments.  I personally consider The Empire Strikes Back to be the peak of the franchise, which seems to be a pretty common stance, but I also find the original Star Wars to be fairly blah.  Plus I remember well how excited the fans of the original trilogy were when the first trailer for The Phantom Menace debuted, and we all know how that worked out.  But having said all that, I'm mildly excited at the thought of a new Star Wars movie to take us out of 2015.

2016

March 4th - Prometheus 2 - I'd call the existence of this film and its release date both tentative at this point, because neither have been officially confirmed.  However, I really, really want to see Ridley Scott deliver a sequel to 2012's Prometheus.  While I readily acknowledge the many flaws in that feature, I'm not sure I could love it any more than I do!  Vicki and I went to the theatre to see it twice, something we almost never do.  And then we promptly watched it a third time as soon as the Blu Ray for it came out.  I think we may have even seen it again since then, which would make four viewings in just two-and-a-half years!  Like the video game Alien: Isolation which came out this year and became my obsession for awhile, Prometheus totally scratched the itch that I have for anything Alien-related, and did it very well.

March 25th - Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice - A film that pits Superman against Batman, with Wonder Woman somehow involved as well, and which is a lead in to the first ever Justice League feature?  My drool bucket runneth over!  I liked but didn't always love Man of Steel, so that's a bit worrisome considering that its director and star have carried over to this, but maybe Zack Snyder can rise to the occasion this time around.  And Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne / Batman, while raising a lot of eyebrows when it was announced, could end up being brilliant considering that Affleck is often a very good actor.  I'm frustrated that this film is still almost 15 months away, considering that it's been filming for ages already, but if taking their time adds to the quality of the final product, I'm all for it.  In terms of anticipation on my part, BvS is nearly as high as the 2nd Avengers flick.

May 6th - Captain America: Civil War - Did I mention my drool bucket was quickly filling up?  The second Cap film, The Winter Soldier, was mind-blowingly good and didn't have a bad scene or dull moment in it.  So any sequel with the same production crew is sure to grab my attention right out of the gate, and then adding Robert Downey, Jr to the mix is just incredible.  To think that just a few weeks after we get Batman fighting Superman on the big screen we're going to be similarly treated to Cap versus Iron Man, I sometimes wonder if this is all just a dream I'm having back in 1978.  I honestly wouldn't have believed, back then, that we'd ever get this many high quality treatments of superhero stories at the movie theatre.

May 22nd - X-Men: Apocalypse - The last two X-Men films, First Class and Days of Future Past, upped the ante on the franchise something crazy.  Each of them put the original three to shame, and I say that as someone who liked that first trilogy and thought the second part was especially good.  Therefore, my expectations are high on Brian Singer's next foray into mutant territory, even though I couldn't really care less about Apocalypse (the villain) as he was introduced into the comics after I'd stopped following anything X-related.

August 5th - Suicide Squad - The comic series by this name that started in the 80s and ran for several years was a real sleeper.  It didn't have any hype behind it and I actually ignored it for the longest time, until I started hearing some of the buzz around it.  When I finally checked it out, what I quickly realized was that the strange concept behind it - a secret government agency blackmails imprisoned supervillains into running potentially-suicidal missions for it by promising them their freedom if they succeed or instant death if they try to make their escape - was actually the secret to its appeal.  Many of the members of the team were third- or even fourth-tier villains, and therefore the writers could do virtually anything with them over the course of a story / mission.  The upcoming film, on the other hand, seems to be leaning toward bigger name villains - Lex Luthor, the Joker, Harley Quinn, for example - and that probably means there won't be quite as much freedom for the characters to be killed off, maimed, or otherwise damaged.  Still, with some of the interesting actors involved (including Jared Leto), I can see a lot of potential here.

November 4th - Doctor Strange - I've become a huge Benedict Cumberbatch fan following his three seasons (and counting) on Sherlock.  At this point, he pretty much walks on water as far as I'm concerned, so while he wouldn't have been my first thought for playing Stephen Strange, I can certainly see him pulling it off.  Strange is one of those characters who's always been hit-and-miss for me, as most comic writers who've tackled him haven't really known what to do with a Master of the Mystic Arts.  Given Marvel Studios' recent track record, though, I'll extend them the benefit of the doubt and assume that won't be the case with his big screen debut.

December ?? - Avatar 2 - I loved Avatar, so I welcome more magic from Canada's own James Cameron.  Bring it on, I say!

2017

June 23rd - Wonder Woman - Now we're two-and-a-half years into the future, and about all we really know about this feature film is that Gal Gadot will play the Amazonian warrior and Canadian Michelle MacLaren will direct her in it.  I guess we'll all have a much better idea where Warners plans to go with the character once Batman V Superman drops, but until then I'll remain cautiously optimistic that the greatest superheroine of all time will get good treatment at their hands.

July 28th - Thor: Ragnarok - With 2014's Sexiest Man Alive in the starring role, what's not to like about a third Thor movie?  (The ladies who get dragged to these things by their boyfriends and husbands deserve at least that much, don't they?)  The first two features were solidly entertaining fare, and that's what I expect from Ragnarok.  That title (meaning the end of the world for the Norse gods) certainly suggests that it could be the final installment, making room for other Marvel characters to get films.  I'm OK either way, personally.

November 3rd - The Black Panther - Speaking of new characters, T'Challa is an amazingly rich one to tell stories about, being an African prince, spending time as an Avengers, and having been married to Storm (of the X-Men) for awhile, to name but a few elements.  I have no idea which parts of his history they'll choose to explore in the screen version, but I look forward to finding out.

November 17th - Justice League Part 1 - A film so great, they had to... split it in half?  What the -?  Oh never mind, it's what all the cool kids are doing these days (Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Hobbit, etc, etc, etc) so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.  My initial reaction to this news, I'll admit, was excitement.  After all, getting two films has to be better than one, right?  More room to tell a more complete story, to focus on character development or just have more cool action scenes.  At least in theory.  I've dreamed of a big budget JLA film since I was a kid, and in a little less than three  years it looks like I'll finally get my wish.  Please please please don't blow it, Warners!

December ?? - Avatar 3 - Yes, assuming # 2 is good.

2018

March 23rd - The Flash - Doesn't he already have a TV show?  Oh wait, this is the completely different version that's in the Justice League movie, which shouldn't be at all confusing to fans.  Hmmm.  Reserving judgement on this because... it's still more than four years away, for crying out loud!

May 4th - Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 - Again with the breaking the story up over two films!  Still, it's Avengers, and it'll probably rock!

July 6th - Captain Marvel - Not to be confused with the Captain Marvel who says Shazam! to change between Billy Batson and his superhero identity, this is Marvel Comics' current iteration: a strong female character who has a ton of potential.  I love seeing non-white and/or non-male heroes being developed, and both Black Panther and Captain Marvel (not to mention Wonder Woman from Warners) are great steps in that direction.

July 27th - Aquaman - Another Justice League spinoff, with more still to come.  They've cast one of the Game of Thrones actors for this role, and he was fine in GoT so... sure, let's see what he's got!  Done right, the king of the seven seas can be a fantastic vehicle for telling great stories.

November 2nd - The Inhumans - Fans of the SHIELD TV show have already seen the seeds being planted for this, I think, as the blue alien that Coulson and the rest have discovered is actually a Kree.  They're the alien race who created the Inhumans in the comics, you see, which is likely where that storyline is headed.  Rumour has it that the Inhumans basically replace the X-Men (or mutants in general) in the Marvel TV and film universe, since they can't use any of the mutant characters who 20th Century Fox currently own (in terms of cinematic rights).

December ?? - Avatar 4 - I'm sensing a pattern here, perhaps inspired by Peter Jackson and a little trilogy you may have heard of, called The Lord of the Rings...

2019

April 5th - Shazam - Hey, we were just talking about you!  My guess is that Warners will call the character 'Shazam' rather than 'Captain Marvel' in order to avoid confusion with the other one.  But they really shouldn't, as this Cap was Cap long before Marvel Comics even existed.  In the comics, Shazam was the old wizard who told Billy Batson to say his name (SHAZAM!) whenever he wanted to change between boy and superhero.  Anyway, I hope they don't blow this too badly.

May 3rd - Avengers: Infinity War Part 2 - I can hardly wait to see what kind of cliffhanger we were left with at the end of Part 1!

June 14th - Justice League Part 2 - Ditto, although this one at least comes out on a great date!

2020 (No, I'm not kidding!)

April 3rd - Cyborg - Another Justice League member, leaving only one more to go...

June 19th - Green Lantern - ... and here he is!  Not Ryan Reynolds this time around, thankfully, but probably Hal Jordan once again.  This means that all of the JL heroes will get their own chance to start or continue franchises... Wow.  That's a lot of faith in the brand, on the part of Warners.

Whew.

And this expansive list doesn't even touch on the upcoming Netflix series starring Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and them teaming up as the Defenders, nor any of the other TV shows, some of which have turned out be great.

Anti-Vaccination Movement Finally Losing Some Steam

According to the LA Times, the momentum behind the ridiculous anti-vaccination movement let up slightly in 2014, dipping down a tiny bit for the first time in 10 years.  This completely discredited bullshit is an embarrassment to liberal-minded people everywhere, it being one of the very few areas where progressives are guilty of ignoring the science (a mindset that conservatives tend to embrace with the bliss typical of of the ignorant).  The pushback against vaccines, and specifically the belief that they actually cause autism in young children, came about after one lone quack in Britain published 'research findings' to that effect which turned out to have been fabricated entirely, something that the publication itself admitted to not long afterward.

Hopefully this means a corner has been turned on this topic and rational thought will allow us to avoid bringing back diseases like small pox and the mumps in the future.

Christmas Haul 2014

Vicki and I took it easy on the gifts this year, limiting ourselves to about 4 or 5 gifts each (which, believe it or not, is a major reduction over some of the excesses of past years).  Tammy's job is presently keeping her so busy that she couldn't get away to visit us during the season, as well, so that's added to the low-key atmosphere around Christmas 2014.

Having said that, though, I did receive several lovely presents from Vicki, including one that especially surprised and delighted me: the limited edition Breaking Bad "barrel" collection on Blu-Ray!  I had held off on picking that up because it's always been very pricey whenever I've seen it, but she managed to find it at a discount and I couldn't be happier. I'm very excited about watching the series all the way through again one of these days, and now I know that I can.

I also got several books that look interesting and a renewal of my PlayStation+ membership, which will make both Boneman and I happy.  Vicki has a couple new jigsaw puzzles to put together, some reading material and a pair of gift certificates to spend.  So we both made out very well indeed!

The Perils Of An All-Digital Movie Future

Here's an interesting article on how the movement from physical film to digital could be setting up a disaster for the movie industry in terms of archival.  It's quite the ironic turnabout, as digital was seen as the salvation from decaying film prints of the past.

I can relate to this personally as I was recently thinking about the VHS tape we have that contains home movies from the 90s, which I'd be hard pressed to watch right now as I'm not sure we have a working VCR.  I would guess, tho, that the explosion of people recording video on their phones over the past decade will likely lead to a cottage industry of format converting utilities, as there will be millions (billions?) of customers out there who desperately want to retain access to their children's music recitals, Christmas mornings and stupid human tricks.

Prime Number Breakthrough

Unless you've read articles like this one, you probably aren't even aware that the study of prime numbers is "a thing."  It is, however, and this news of a discovery about the size of "prime gaps," or the distance between consecutive prime numbers, could end up being a big deal.  As the article mentions, it could have implications to encryption programs like those used for cyber security, for example.

Still, it can be a hard concept to wrap your head around - that prime numbers are even all that significant to begin with!  After all, a number's just a number, right?  Who cares if it can be divided evenly by smaller numbers or not?  Well, it turns out to be pretty important, and luckily the number geeks are all over it.

George Clooney On The Sony Cyber Attack

Deadline has published a brief interview with George Clooney in which the actor/director talks about his attempts to get studio execs to sign a petition declaring their opposition to what the North Korean hackers have done regarding Sony's film, The Interview.  As he says, "Not a single person would sign."  Clooney goes on to point out, very intelligently, what this sort of acquiesence to terrorism means in the big picture of standing up to extortion and threats.

It's definitely worth a read.

At The Intersection Of Music And Business

Here's a great article by musician Amanda Palmer on the crazy attitude so many people take when artists choose to pull back the curtain on how much money they make (or lose).  She really nails it, laying out the double standard that exists on this topic.

One of the cases she cites is the backlash directed at Pomplamoose's Jack Conte after he published the finances of his band's 23-city tour that lost almost $12,000 recently.  His post makes fascinating reading, absolutely.  But the reactions to it are equally gripping, as they perfectly demonstrate just how big the disconnect is between the reality of band life and the illusion so many buy into.

I love that both Palmer and Conte focus on the long view in their decisions, being willing to lose (or make less) money in the short term in order to grow their fan base over the long haul.

Alien: Isolation Sequel At Least Being Discussed

I absolutely loved Alien: Isolation this fall, despite some obvious flaws.  It played shamelessly on my obsession with Ridley Scott's Alien film, and I was joyfully sucked right in.  Therefore I'm glad to hear that a potential Alien: Isolation 2 is something that the development team is discussing, although it sounds like it's far from a given at this point. Also of interest to me in that interview is news of two new difficulty settings for the original game: Novice and Nightmare.  I can't imagine playing on the latter, but having an even easier / less deadly setting in which to explore the space station definitely appeals.

I really hope AI wins some 2014 gaming awards, as I find it hard to imagine there was a better game released this year.

Very Cool Trip Through Time

I love the Up documentary series and the movie Boyhood for lots of different reasons, but one of the main ones is the way that both allow you to experience the passage of time.  In each case, you get to watch a small set of people change as they age and it's hard not to be affected by the journey.

Here's something similar, done with still photos: four sisters were photographed each year across the span of four decades, and it's fascinating to see how differently each woman ages.  I can't even imagine how it must be for them, looking at those photos now.

December Biking

I couldn't resist the 1° C (or -1° C with windchill) temperature today and so I biked downtown to get comics.  This was actually a much easier ride than last week's, thanks to the wind being nearly non-existent.  I also took more than enough Kleenexes with me today, unlike last week, which made for a nicer experience, too!

This means I did at least 9 months of biking in 2014, as I'm uncertain as to whether I got one in during March but I know April through December are now in the bag.  Not bad for a guy pushing 52!

The Latest On The Preacher TV Series

It seems like the project that will never happen: getting Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's amazing Preacher comic series adapted to either television or film.  There have been several aborted attempts, and it's still very much up in the air as to whether the latest one will fly, but at least now a pilot has been ordered for the proposed AMC series.  I still have my doubts that anyone can successfully translate the material out of its original medium and deal with the inevitable push back from religious types, but time will tell.

My love for Preacher is nearly boundless, and it's one of the very few long comic series (75 issues) that I've re-read multiple times.  It's also on my short list of comics that I won't be selling as long as I still own any comics.  That's how good it is.

Wacky Science May Get Our Kids Or Grandkids Into Space

I don't quite understand the science involved but this article makes it sound at least possible that an alternative to rocket-propelled space travel may be within our reach in the next 20-50 years.

Still Biking In Late November

I did the bike ride downtown today for a comic (that's right, it was for one comic this week: Lazarus) and that was in 0° C (-4° C with the windchill) weather, recognizing that this may be my last chance before March of next year.  We've already had one big snowfall this month, though warm temperatures over the past weekend and earlier this week took care of all that.  It's still possible I'll get one more ride in next week if it's not too wet, but I'm not holding out much hope that I'll actually make it into December.

Oh well, as it is today's trip was strenuous (and cold) enough that I feel pretty good about being able to get this late into the year at my age. 

Creating A Leader-Leader, Rather Than Leader-Follower, Culture Within An Organization

(Hat tip to Mike Cohn for the original link via Twitter): I really like this article about U.S. nuclear sub commander David Marquet and his approach to leadership. While the language used (on board the sub) might be too formal and stilted to work in a software environment, the ideas behind it - ensuring control, competence and clarity - would work perfectly in an Agile development shop.  Or, put another way, the goal is to have everyone on the team able to make good decisions because they understand the mission (including the relative priorities) and are actively engaged in the completion of it.  No one's "just following orders," nobody feels unappreciated, and every member is pulling in the same direction as the team.

Definitely worth a read for anyone out there still doing the 9-to-5.

Another Book Update

Just to show that progress is continuing to happen: I finished my first cut of the third chapter on the new book today.  It needs some work but hopefully by the end of the week it'll be in good enough shape that I can move on to Chapter 4 next week.  For reasons beyond my understanding, the chapters this time around are turning out to be slightly shorter than they've typically been in the past.  I guess that means I'll either have more chapters in the fifth novel or it'll be somewhat lighter than its predecessors, if this trend continues.  You'd think I would know which, but then again you'd probably also think I was working from an outline on this project.

New Book Project Finally Has Some Steam Behind It

I started it over three months ago, and then completely stalled.  My fifth novel (and eighth book) just wasn't happening for me for awhile, but now it seems to be coming together.  I finished the first chapter, and then wrote the second chapter, all during the four days Vicki was visiting relatives in Baltimore last week.  Since then, Vicki and Tammy have reviewed the chapters and given me edits and feedback, both of which help to motivate me to keep writing.

So there's some cause for optimism that this latest writing project has finally started to take off.  I still expect it's likely going to be an autumn book release in 2015 rather than a spring one, but we'll see.

Another Hallowe'en Comes And Goes Like A Ghost

Well, it wasn't a bad turnout this year, despite the cold and rainy weather that descended on us today.  We saw a baker's dozen trick-or-treaters this time around, up nearly 50% from last year's 9.  So it goes.

Here are the up-to-date totals for the 9 Hallowe'ens over which I've been blogging:

2014: 13
2013: 9
2012: 14
2011: 15
2010: 18
2009: 19
2008: 19
2007: 18
2006: 12

And yes, that means that this blog had its 8th anniversary at the start of the month, not that anyone noticed (including me).  How about that?  8 years!

Alien: Isolation Just Keeps On Giving

Minutes ago, I finished the main campaign for Alien: Isolation, my pick for the best Alien-based video game of all time.  Alien Vs Predator, the original 1999 First Person Shooter, was probably better but it wasn't as true to the source material nor as much of a love letter to the fans.  I've been so hooked on AI over the past couple weeks (as has Vicki, as an observer), and so absolutely in love with it even as it sometimes frustrated the hell out of me!

I still have more to enjoy with it, too, as there's a short second campaign, Crew Expendable, that allows you to play as Ripley, Dallas or Parker from the original film as they try to drive the xenomorph off their ship.  Incredibly, the game makers got the cast members of Ridley Scott's 1979 Alien to come into the studio and provide their voices to this part, lending it a degree of authenticity that I can't wait to experience.

And then there's something called Survivor Mode which I think is an online Nazi Zombies-style adventure that always ends badly but manages to provide some great fun along the way.  [Update the next day: Nope, Survivor Mode is single player, as well, and basically times you while you try to escape an area and achieve objectives as you go.  Not quite as much fun as I'd hoped, but still OK.]

All of which means I expect to be playing this game for at least another several days, making it more than worth the money I spent on it.  For me, this has definitely been the Game of the Year!

Race Car Richie

After several failed attempts due to bad weather, my brother Rich and nephew Dick finally got to drive race cars around a track like lunatics.  It's not anything I'd ever want to do (I'm holding out for jumping out of a plane, maybe along with Rich) but if the look on his face below means anything, my brother had an amazing time:

Not So Fast On Solving Jack The Ripper's Identity

A month and a half ago, I posted a link to a story claiming that the identity of Jack the Ripper had finally been proven, and that it was a Polish immigrant who'd been a suspect at the time.

Now, however, it seems that discovery has been called into question, in a big way.  Either the scientist who did the test has to come forward and disprove the claims that he screwed up the DNA matching, or we're back to not knowing who Jack really was.

Alien: Isolation - Never Has Dying Been This Much Fun!

I've now owned Alien: Isolation for almost a week, or perhaps I should say, it's owned me!  It's easily the scariest and most difficult video game I've ever played, and I couldn't be happier with it.

As someone who normally hates stealth missions in games, it's taken me some time to adjust to AI's style.  It really is all about survival, pure and simple.  Although he takes his time showing up initially, once the titular xenomorph appears on the scene you're pretty much screwed if you don't buy into the strategy of sneaking around slowly and making as little noise as possible.  I've been killed by the big-headed bugger dozens of times by now after trying numerous methods to terminate him (knowing all along that you can't, but it's still fun trying) as well as discovering countless ways to unintentionally draw his attention.  What a great ride!  Rarely frustrated, and never deterred.

This truly is the ultimate gaming experience for fans of Ridley Scott's 1979 masterpiece like me.

Best And Worst Of Alien Videogames

Tomorrow, Alien: Isolation launches and my copy for the PS4 is already on its way to me!  Unlike the relaunched Aliens Vs Predator and Alien: Colonial Marines of recent memory, this Alien game is actually getting very good reviews (averaging around 8/10 or so) and has me very excited... as well as more than a little bit scared!  Not scared that it'll suck, but rather that it'll be so hard that I won't be able to get very far in it.

Anyway, in anticipation of that momentous arrival, we have this lovely article, reminiscing about the best and worst of the games in the genre til now.  And yes, the original, 1999 AvP game really was every bit as great as the reviewer says!

Twin Peaks Returning From Oblivion

It seems somehow fitting that right after the 10th anniversary of Lost's debut on TV, we get this news that Twin Peaks, the original "full of potential but not really paying off its many mysteries" headscratcher is being brought back by its creator, David Lynch. 

Vicki and I initially heard about Twin Peaks a couple weeks after it launched (right around the time we got together) and were then lucky enough to catch re-runs of the episodes we'd missed.  To say we were hooked would be putting it mildly!  But the honeymoon (with the show, anyway) was somewhat short-lived, as the series seemed to promise so much while delivering so little.  I think we stuck with it to the end, but I can't say for sure as I don't recall how it wrapped up.  I'm certainly curious to see what Lynch will do with this opportunity to give us "answers and a satisfying conclusion."  I guess we'll have to wait to see what Canadian channel will pick it up, of course.

Life In The Post-Snowden Era

It's getting more and more interesting, that's for sure!  We've proven for millions of years that we're a highly adaptive species, and this "arms race" over information ownership is just another example.

Another Ode To Lost, 10 Years Later

I'm still slowly making my way through this one, savouring every point that Andy Greenwald makes along the way, but this line in particular really spoke to me:

"What really rankles is that nothing ever took [Lost]'s place."

I feel the same frustration.  Despite there being lots of other great shows like Breaking Bad, The Bridge (original Swedish/Norwegian, not the crappy American one) and True Detective, to name but a few, I can't think of a single "genre" program that's recaptured the overwhelming sense of awe and wonder that Lost brought with its launch a decade ago.  Fringe looked promising at first but fizzled fast; Doctor Who has momentarily flashes of brilliance, at best; and those are among the best there's been over the past ten years.

I think it may soon be time to dive back in and re-watch Lost from start to finish, just like we said we were going to do after it wrapped up.  

10 Years After The Launch of Lost

Here's a nice reflection on the 10th anniversary of the debut of Lost by Jeff "Doc" Jensen.  I think we all owe a debt of thanks to that much-loved, somewhat-flawed series, as it really did prove that audiences will invest a lot of time and energy into a TV show if you make it worth their while.  Breaking Bad, for example, got great mileage out of that and ultimately, probably, paid its fans more handsomely for their efforts.

Bringing Back The 40-Hour Work Week

In Canada, I guess we'd say "the 37.5-hour work week," but other than that small difference, this Salon article applies perfectly to our situation here.  The article presents a compelling case for working at what those of us in the Agile community call "a sustainable pace."  Nice to see that there's not only scientific research aplenty to back it up, but also a couple centuries of historical precedent that apparently most employers have managed to forget.

Nice To See "Civil Forteiture" Scam Getting More Exposure

We first heard about it on 60 Minutes, I think, and then engaged in a lively debate as to whether or not it could really be as scammy as it sounded.  I said it couldn't be, whereas Vicki wisely voted the other way.  (In case you haven't heard how 'civil forfeiture' works: basically American cops are pulling over drivers and then telling them they have to surrender some or all of the cash they're carrying on some flimsy pretext of looking suspicious, without actually charging them with any crime.)  Since that 60 Minutes broadcast, there's been more and more coverage of this awful abuse of power within the U.S.  Hopefully if there's enough indignation and noise created, the law will be either rescinded or altered to something that doesn't completely violate the civil rights of every one it comes in contact with.

How To Combat Online Harrassment

It's a problem that just keeps getting worse and worse: more and more people (often, though certainly not always, females) are targeted by online trolls and arrested adolescents for abuse.  Death threats, rape threats, verbal abuse...  It's something I hear a lot about on the comic book sites I frequent, as well as being famously bad within the various gaming communities.

I like the thinking behind this Wired article, which argues that the same sort of community norms that exist within our work environments and social settings (in the real world) need to be expected and enforced online.  I think that's exactly right, and the only reason it hasn't happened yet, I suspect, is that it hasn't really been all that long that Joe and Jane Q. Public have been frequenters of the web world.  Not too many years ago it was only a small, socially-dysfunctional subset of society (among whom I'd count myself, more or less) who were spending a lot of time on their computers, interacting virtually.  Back then, it was more of a private club, and as we all know, those are the sort of places that are usually the last to welcome diversity or adapt to changing social pressures (see: golf memberships not allowed for Jews, or blacks, or ....).

Here's hoping the ideas expressed in the article can be embraced by the main social networks, as this is clearly a problem that needs to be solved. 

Jack The Ripper Mystery Solved?

This is a huge deal, if it's true: DNA has reportedly been used to determine that Jack the Ripper was actually Polish immigrant Aaron Kosminski.  Genetic testing has proven fairly conclusively the existence of blood belonging to Kosminski, who was institutionalized not long after the final Ripper killing, on a shawl found near one of the victims.

The one key element not mentioned in the article, however, is whether the man had any kind of medical training, either in Poland or England, as it's always been reported that the technique of the murders indicated at least rudimentary understanding of human anatomy.  I think if it came out that Kosminski had flunked out of medical school or trained as a medic in the army, for example, that would completely cinch the deal.

I always liked Alan Moore's theory in From Hell that it was royal surgeon Sir William Gull wielding the knife all those years ago.  But even so, finding out a definitive answer is definitely better than never knowing.

Interesting News About Facial Symmetry

One of the very minor plot points in my 2nd novel, No Brother of Mine, involves the fact that a mother-daughter pair (Kelly and Sarah) share a particularly interesting common genetic trait: slightly asymmetric facial features.  The narrator, Mitch, explains in the epilogue that he considers something like that attractive because the less symmetrical a face is (within reason), the more likely it is to stand out in a crowd and draw your eye to it.  He expresses that sentiment in contrast to what he admits is the more common attitude, which is that symmetry = beauty.

Now comes encouraging news that at least one of the reasons often cited for that shallow attitude, which is the notion that symmetry = health, has been called into question by a recent study. There appears to be no relationship between the two, in fact, which means Mitch wasn't so crazy after all!

Lovely Judgment In The Sherlock Holmes Public Domain Fight

It's nice to see that sanity prevailed, and then some, in Leslie Klinger's fight against the Arthur Conan Doyle estate and its attempts to bully writers and publishers of new Sherlock Holmes material into paying licensing fees for work that's already firmly within the public domain.  The judges ruled entirely in Klinger's favour in the appeal, awarding him $30,000 for attorneys' fee, and my favourite part of the ruling was:

"[Klinger was] combating a disreputable business practice- a form of extortion– and he is seeking by the present motion not to obtain a reward but merely to avoid a loss. He has performed a public service." 

Yup, that's what the ACD estate's actions have amounted to: a form of extortion. Well said!

The Ebola Situation

The headline of this article pretty much says it all: You Are Not Nearly Scared Enough About Ebola!

Amazing Open Letter To Ferguson Police Chief

David Simon, best known as the creator of the TV show, The Wire, has published an open letter to the police chief of Ferguson, Missouri, where for the past several days community members have been protesting the police shooting of a (black) unarmed young man, Michael Brown. It's a brilliant composition, calling out the decision of the police force to hide the identity of the shooter as the cowardly, hypocritical move that it is.

"If Ferguson police can’t protect one of their own — a fellow officer who is armed, who is allied with an entire department of armed comrades, who are themselves buttressed by their jurisdiction’s prosecutorial arm, who have the full weight of the law at hand in support of that officer — then how in hell are they going to protect me when I go down to the courthouse and testify?  How can they ask me, an ordinary citizen with no armament, alliance or authority, to stand up in open court and be identified?"

The whole thing deserves a read.

The Many Dimensions Of Robin Williams

I've been on an on-again, off-again fan of Robin Williams since I first saw him playing Mork the alien on Happy Days before spinning off into Mork & Mindy, way back in my adolescent days.  I loved him in Awakenings, Dead Poets Society and Goodwill Hunting, though at other times his schtick would completely take me out of a film.

Vicki and I were eating dinner at Crabby Joe's this week when I looked up and saw the TV screen showing CNN with the banner, "Breaking News: Robin Williams Dead at 63."  I actually said, "What the Hell?" to Vicki then, which was kind of cruel as she couldn't see what I was looking at.  Within minutes, of course, incredulity turned to realization and sadness, as usually happens in these situations.

In the wake of his death, we've learned all kinds of things that most of us would prefer to have never learned, such as the fact that one of the funniest people on the planet suffered from deep bouts of depression, and that his death was likely a suicide.  Maybe something good will come of it, though, as mental health is a topic that desperately needs to be discussed more and stigmatized less.

On a more positive note, I saw this wonderful article today, in which it's revealed that Mr. Williams required that all events and jobs that wanted to book him also commit to hiring a certain number of homeless people to work on it, as well.  Imagine that: a celebrity who made it a condition of his employment that some of the less fortunate members of society also benefit.  And considering that I've never heard this before now, I'm guessing he didn't exactly broadcast the fact, either.  Wow.  That's a good man for you.

The First Sale

Speaking of my brother (as I was in the previous post), he gets the credit for the first sale of a comic from my collection.  He mentioned to a friend what I was up to, and the next thing I knew X-Men # 12 was flying out of its long box and off to a new home somewhere in the Strathroy area.  Easiest.  Sale.  Ever!  Thanks, bro!

One down, several thousands to go...

An Auspicious Anniversary Week

I was reflecting today how this week features the anniversaries of two significant changes to my life.

Six years ago, I quit my job and entered the world of semi-retirement / self-employment.  My writing career, which had just barely started while I was still working full-time, has obviously taken on a whole life of its own in the ensuing years.  I can't imagine I'd have seven books and four novels to my name in 2014 if I'd kept slaving away at the salt mines as I'd been doing for twenty-two years at that point in August of 2008.  It's been a great run so far and it's such a great feeling to have zero regrets about such a potentially disastrous decision.

Three years ago around this time, following the death of my Uncle Bruce, there was a family get-together organized to honour his memory.  It was at that barbeque that my brother Richard and I reconnected, and in the thirty-six months since then he and his wife Meena have become close friends to Vicki and I in a way that I could never have imagined before that encounter.  It's one of those things where, were I to travel back in time three years and a day, I doubt the version of me from 2011 would've believed for a second what the future would hold regarding that fractured relationship.

A couple of recent life-changing events for me, both hitting anniversaries as I enjoy the second half of this summer.  Not bad at all!

The Big Sell-Off

For years now, I've been telling Vicki that I'll eventually start selling off the comic collection, since it was never my intention to have it be something that she, or Tammy, or whoever would have to deal with after I'm gone.  In my 40s, "after I'm gone" looked far enough away that I didn't really do anything more than sell some of my doubles (second copies) on eBay or at comic conventions.

Now that I'm firmly esconced in my 50s, however, I figure it's time to get started on keeping this promise.  My plan is to shrink the collection to about 10% of its current size over the next several years, meaning I'd go from around 30,000 to roughly 3000, or 10-ish long boxes in place of the current 100+.  Many of the comics I'll be getting rid of will be easy to sell, but most won't be.  Therefore I expect to give a lot of them away, hopefully along the lines of what we did with Tammy's comics last year, which was helping to get them into the hands of needy children on Christmas morning. 

Of course, if you're a reader of this blog and you have someone in your household who'd appreciate the gift of a pile of comics to enjoy, let me know.  I'm sure something can be arranged.

Boyhood Currently Has A 99% Fresh Rating On Rotten Tomatoes!

99%!  I can't remember the last time I saw something even close to that level.  It's kind of insane how critically acclaimed this film is, and yet most movie-goers will never see it.  Whereas drek like Transformers: Age of Extinction, totally devoid of any artistic value at all, continues to rake in millions... Sigh.  Sometimes I weep for us as a species.

Another Example Of Comcastic Customer Service

If you haven't already heard about Ryan Block (co-founder of Engadget) and his wife being harangued by a Comcrap service representative when they tried to cancel their service, please do so now!  Yes, the cable company has offered up an apology after the exchange went viral last week, but unfortunately for them, it's not nearly as unusual an occurrence as they'd have people believe.  And when I read how the annoying agent told Mr and Mrs Block they can always go to a Comcrap retail outlet to cancel their service, I wanted to punch somebody.  Too many bad memories of our recent visit to Hell!  I hate to admit it, but I'm slowly starting to realize why so many people pirate their shows instead of paying for a cable subscription... at least in the States.

Can't Wait For Boyhood... But May Have To

The good news is that the reviews for Richard Linklater's Boyhood have been overwhelmingly positive and often downright gushing.  The bad news is that it doesn't appear to be slated for a wide release when it opens in the next week, meaning that Vicki and I, for example, will have to either travel to Toronto to see it or wait for it to come out on DVD. I'm sure it'll be worth the wait, no matter when we finally get our chance, but dang, something's broken somewhere in the system when a film with this kind of reputation and moderate star power (Ethan Hawke) can't get a foothold in any but the biggest of markets.

Comcast: Really Bad Company Or Worst Company Ever?

I used to work for Comcast, so I've long known just how completely dysfunctional and incompetent they are from an internal point-of-view.  I ended up retiring early rather than continue dealing with their idiotic decisions back in 2008, so I guess it shouldn't surprise me to discover just how badly they treat their customers.  There's recognition like this, where they were voted (for the second time) as the worst company in America, and then there's anecdotal evidence like the experience Vicki and I have had with them over the past month.

We had an American relative pass away in early June, and among the tasks we took on as a result was cancelling the relative's Comcast cable account.  I should've known it was going to be a nightmare, but even I was shocked by how crappy their customer service was.  First, we tried to cancel the account over the phone.  One of the options available to us was for removing services from your account, so I selected that one.  I was put into a queue (so far, so good) and then, after several minutes of annoying muzak, I was hung up on!  Undeterred, I tried again: same result!  Finally, I called in and selected "Add a service" and voila!  I was quickly passed on to a live agent!  Unfortunately, that agent couldn't actually cancel an account but he was nice enough to transfer me to someone who, theoretically at least, could.

Next, I found out that the relative's account could only be cancelled if we faxed or emailed Comcast the death certificate, which we didn't have yet at that point.  I even said, "Look, forget that the person died, just cancel it as you would whenever someone doesn't want the service anymore" but no, they couldn't do that.  So we had to wait until we got the death certificate.

A few days later, certificate in hand, Vicki tried her luck.  She was also hung up on if she selected "Remove a service" so she, too, had to get in another way, which she did.  Eventually, she got to an agent who directed Vicki to email a scan of the death certificate to a particular email address within Comcast, and told her that should do it.  Vicki included in the email directions as to where Comcast could pick up the cable box and remote control, and we assumed that was that.

Except, of course, it wasn't.  Upon checking back in a week or so later, we found out that Comcast won't pick up hardware, only deliver it.  So it was up to us to get the equipment to them.  However, the nearest Comcrap retail outlet was approximately 50 miles away from the relative's home, which made it about 150 miles away from here.  We fought to get them to pick it up, but all we got for our troubles was a $130 fee being levied against the relative's bank account for not returning the hardware.

That led to us spending the day today driving to Macomb, Michigan, to drop off the equipment Comcrap had been all too happy to deliver previously.  That location, it turns out, is one of the levels of Hell.  There were 30 customers ahead of us, and we waited nearly an hour for the pleasure of handing back to them the cable box and remote along with a few choice words.  Eight agent stations were set aside in the office for servicing customers but only 3 of them actually had agents behind them the entire time we were there.  Kids ran around unattended while their parents languished in perpetual agony alongside us and while a TV screen blared children's programming at top volume.

If you think Bell or Rogers are bad to deal with here in Canada, trust me: you ain't seen nothing until you've had to deal with Comcrap 'customer service.'  It is, quite simply, the worst I've ever seen, by far.

The Overprotective Parent

Wow.  This article blew me away, hitting so many nails right on the head with its look at the effect overprotective parenting is having on the current generation of kids.  Children nowadays are so closely supervised and 'managed' by their parents that they're simply not developing into independent, fully-formed humans by the time they reach adulthood.  I see this all the time, especially when I've been tutoring kids in the past. 

There's tons of fascinating stuff in the article, but here are just a couple of examples to encourage you to give it a read:

"But sometimes it seems as if children don’t get the space to grow up at all; they just become adept at mimicking the habits of adulthood. As Hart’s research shows, children used to gradually take on responsibilities, year by year. They crossed the road, went to the store; eventually some of them got small neighborhood jobs. Their pride was wrapped up in competence and independence, which grew as they tried and mastered activities they hadn’t known how to do the previous year. But these days, middle-class children, at least, skip these milestones. They spend a lot of time in the company of adults, so they can talk and think like them, but they never build up the confidence to be truly independent and self-reliant."

and

"It’s hard to absorb how much childhood norms have shifted in just one generation. Actions that would have been considered paranoid in the ’70s—walking third-graders to school, forbidding your kid to play ball in the street, going down the slide with your child in your lap—are now routine. In fact, they are the markers of good, responsible parenting. One very thorough study of “children’s independent mobility,” conducted in urban, suburban, and rural neighborhoods in the U.K., shows that in 1971, 80 percent of third-graders walked to school alone. By 1990, that measure had dropped to 9 percent, and now it’s even lower. When you ask parents why they are more protective than their parents were, they might answer that the world is more dangerous than it was when they were growing up. But this isn’t true, or at least not in the way that we think. For example, parents now routinely tell their children never to talk to strangers, even though all available evidence suggests that children have about the same (very slim) chance of being abducted by a stranger as they did a generation ago. Maybe the real question is, how did these fears come to have such a hold over us? And what have our children lost—and gained—as we’ve succumbed to them?"

Converting Story Points To Hours (That Old Chestnut)

Mike Cohn posted a very nice explanation of why it's such a challenge to turn story points, the unit of estimation used by many Agile (and some non-Agile) teams, into hours, the beloved unit of project managers the world over.  As Mike points out, it's a somewhat reasonable question when applied to a single team whose composition has been kept relatively intact over time, but a ridiculous one when applied to multiple teams, each of whom have differing ideas of what represents 1 story point of work and therefore work at differing velocities.

From One Fringe To The Next

We've been incredibly busy lately, which is at least part of the reason for the lack of blogging on my part.  Among other things, the London Fringe Festival wrapped up a week ago, which saw us volunteering and going to shows all while dealing with some family matters.  In fact, we didn't take in as many Fringe performances as we'd hoped to, and that has us feeling like we need more Fringe.

Fortunately, Toronto Fringe is just over a week away, and now we're making plans to take it in with Tammy.  She's already started a spreadsheet for it and everything, so I think it really will happen.  Now we just have to decide amongst about a hundred shows, boiling our choices down to what will fit into a 3-day weekend.  Stressful, and yet still fun!

Summer = Fringe!

The Final Jar

Nearly 6 years ago Vicki and I spotted a cache of Bick's Dill Pickles with Garlic in the 1.5 L size, a rare bird which had long since gone extinct in these parts.  We excitedly bought as many jars as we could carry home by foot.  In the end, after more than one trip to the Superstore, I think we had stockpiled roughly 20 jars.  And I was in Heaven.

Today I'll begin enjoying the final jar of that stash.  When the NHL playoffs began two months ago, I decided I'd crack open the sole remaining jar once the Rangers were eliminated, as a small form of consolation for another disappointing year.  Little did I know that the Blueshirts would actually make it to the Finals, coming up just 3 wins short of capturing the Cup.  The postseason wrapped up late last night with another heart-breaking overtime loss, but today I'll get my reward on the 20th anniversary of the last time they actually didn't fail in their pursuit of the utimate glory.

This is also the 2nd anniversary of Jonesy joining our family, another event for which I'm extremely thankful.  And yet, even he's not getting any of the precious contents of that jar!

Tesla Opens Its Patents To The World

Wow.  This is actually pretty impressive.  Elon Musk has decided that the various breakthroughs he and his team at Tesla have made with electric car technology will better serve mankind and the planet (and even the company itself) by being available to all rather than zealously guarded as is usually the case with secret sauces.  The more I learn about this Musk guy, the more I like and admire him.

Must See Theatre: Roller Derby Saved My Soul

Three years ago, Vicki and I took in Hamilton Fringe and one of our favourite of its shows was called Roller Derby Saved My Soul.  Its creator and star, Nancy Kenny, was a delight to watch as she brought the two female leads to life in the form of a pair of very different sisters.  Her script was full of pop culture references to Buffy, Xena, Wonder Woman and other iconic figures, and the physicality of Ms Kenny's performance was amazing... she actually does a good portion of the play on roller skates, motoring around the stage at a good clip as the story, and her derby skills, develop before our eyes.

This summer, Nancy has brought Roller Derby Saved My Soul to London, as well as several upcoming Fringe Festivals, including Toronto and Montreal.  I was fortunate enough to get a lunch date with her today so I could ask her a few questions about how the play came to be and what it's like to do a one-woman show on roller skates.  She told me she'd been inspired by seeing a one-man show back in 2009 and had decided, more or less on the spot, to write something of that sort for herself.  Not too long after that resolution she happened to see a newspaper article about a local roller derby league and was intrigued by what she read.  Several months of in-arena research and rough draft-writing later, Roller Derby Saved My Soul was born.

The play has been tweaked in some interesting ways since we saw it in 2011, but it's still the tale of Amy and June, two sisters with almost nothing in common.  And it continues to overflow with laugh-out-loud moments, powerful stunts and a terrific all-round performance by Ms. Kenny.  I was able to get out to see the new and updated version last week while Vicki was busy doing some volunteer work, and we're going to see it together later this week.  It's just that good!

And don't let the title fool you: while RDSMS celebrates the world of roller derby in its own funny way, you definitely don't have to be a fan of that sport to thoroughly enjoy Nancy Kenny's creation.  Everything you need to know about it comes out over the course of the hour, and (as Bill Cosby used to say), if you're not careful, you might just learn something while you're at it!

There are three performances of the show still to come this week before the tour moves on:

Tonight @ 8:30
Thu night @ 10:00
Fri night @  7:00

All of them are at the McManus Studio (downstairs at the Grand Theatre on Richmond) and tickets are $10 at the door, although you'll also need to spend $6 on a Fringe Button (also at the door) if it's your first Fringe show of the year (all the proceeds from the ticket sales go to the performers, so the button money pays for the venues and other expenses).  Even at $16 per person, this show will over-deliver, big-time, on the laughs and thrills, trust me.

Don't miss this opportunity to see a truly wonderful one-hour show!
 

Poopy Birds Defeated?

After nearly a decade of dealing with large quantities of bird crap being deposited around and even into our pool by grackles who nest in the trees of our neighbourhood for about two weeks each May, we seem to have finally found an effective deterrent for this springtime annoyance.

Vicki deserves the credit, as she was the one who read on the Internet that fishing line might keep them away.  Willing to try anything at this point, we set up several garden supports on either side of the pool and then strung lines between them, crisscrossing the entire area.

It's probably hard to see in the photo but if you can click on it to make it bigger that should bring our handiwork to light.  We've received so little bird poop in the time since we put them up that we honestly thought "poopy bird season" might not have even started yet.  However, one of our friends who lives nearby and always has the same problem confirmed for me last week that the filthy spring ritual is in full swing already.  The baby grackles must've been born earlier this month and now the parents are dropping their offspring's crap near a convenient water source (so that it'll be washed away from the nest and not give away their location, a practice that evolution has instilled over countless past generations).

I'll admit to being skeptical of this solution when Vicki suggested it, but not any more!  It definitely seems like a winner, with the only downside being that the pool is less accessible for swimming and skimming while the lines are up.  However, I think we can live with that for a couple weeks every spring if it means not having to clean up hundreds of little piles of shit, as we've had to do for the past eight or nine years now.  Yay for Vicki and the Internet! 

John Oliver's Takedown Of The Climate Change "Debate"

I really miss John Oliver since he left The Daily Show to star in his own weekly comedy program, Last Week Tonight.  He clearly showed just how talented he was during Jon Stewart's summer-long sabbatical last year (to film a movie in Iran) so it's no wonder the British comic was given his own show shortly thereafter.

Anyway, in case you haven't seen it, Oliver did a hilarious bit on climate change and the false equivalency that most media reports give to both sides of the "debate" as to whether it's man-made or not.  If you haven't already seen what he did, you should definitely check it out.

Steve Albini And The Music Industry

Scanning the Boing Boing headlines a few days ago, I stumbled across a strangely familiar name: Steve Albini.  I wasn't immediately sure where I'd seen that name before but I was pretty sure it was in relation to the great Magnolia Electric Company and the late, very lamented Jason Molina.  A quick Google search confirmed my suspicion and made me all the more interested in digging into it.

As I started reading the article entitled Who Cares What Steve Albini Thinks?  You Probably Do, I found myself being quickly drawn in by the historical significance of Albini's career as well as his unique attitude toward the role of "music engineer."  I strongly recommend checking out the article yourself if you're at all interested in music, and especially following the links "Letter to Nirvana" and "The Problem with Music" included in the piece.  It's a fascinating read that I still haven't gotten all the way through, several days later, as I keep stopping to think about whatever I've just absorbed from it.  It's an absolute must-read, if you ask me.   

Lost And The Operational Theme Problem

Here's a really good article by Javier Grillo-Marxuach, one of the people responsible for the much-missed Lost TV show, that sheds a lot of light on why some television programs work while others clearly don't.  I'd never looked at it in quite this way before, but it makes perfect sense to me: the characters on the show all have to be directed along the same "operational theme" axis in order to propel the episodes forward in a consistent and compelling manner.  It's the sort of thing that's obvious once it's pointed out to you, but maybe not before that.  And it's also very much in line with the kind of thinking that I put into each of my novels, though I've now got new insights on the topic to consider.

Crazy Physics!

This news of scientists figuring out how to "trick the uncertainty principle" is pretty mind-blowing in its possible implications for the future of quantum science.  If it leads to the ability to extend quantum behaviour to non-quantum (macroscopic) objects, we could be talking teleportation or instantaneous communication over large (really, really large) distances, among other major breakthroughs.  Yikes!

The XBox One Fiasco

I own both an XBox 360 and a PS3, and I'd say I got my money's worth out of each of them, although the Sony device got used about ten times as much as Microsoft's console.  However, when the XBox One and PS4 were announced last year, it was pretty clear to me that I needn't waste any money on the new box coming out of the house Bill Gates built.  Bad decision after bad decision were revealed by Microsoft in the months leading up to November (when both new consoles arrived), and to be honest I never once wavered in my decision to give the XB1 a pass... not even when I found out that Titanfall, the long-awaited first release from the ex-Infinity Ward crew at Respawn Entertainment, would be exclusive to the XBox family of devices.  Hard to believe anything could sour me enough to pass up a highly-touted first person shooter, and yet there it was.

Today I saw an article on the topic that brought back all those memories and reinforced my decision.  My six-month-old PS4, on the other hand, gets used every week and has been a delight to own so far.

More Comments On Leap Of Faith

It's still rolling in:

"I LOVE IT!! It's honestly one of those books, I can't wait to relax and read, but I also don't want it to end, so I don't want to read it too fast."

and

"I really liked it! The ending shocked me!"

and

"I really enjoyed this book..particularly the main character and how she responds to the whirlwind of information coming her way...I like her personality and her history and ultimately very excited about her choices! The book is a fun ride to read... Like potato chips ..hard to stop at one chapter! Enjoyable and well constructed!"

not to mention this enthusiastic assessment:

"Leap of Faith is epic!!!  Your best novel yet!!!  Love it!!!"

Glad to see that most people are getting their money's worth...

Not That Anyone Asked Me But...

I think the Washington Redskins controversy is easily solved: rename the team to be the Washington Americans, keeping the logo the same.  The proud Native American depicted in the current team logo, decked out in full headdress, is the perfect icon for the new name.  Sure, some folks would continue to refer to the team by its old name for awhile, but fortunately that problem will solve itself as those intractable few inevitably die off.  Problem solved.  You're welcome.

Some Early Feedback On Leap Of Faith

I've only heard from a few people who've finished Leap of Faith in the first couple weeks of its release, but the feedback so far has been almost universally positive.  Here are a few samples:

"Well- I've finished it Matt and I'm misty eyed.... Thanks for a great read and you've wowed me. Can't wait to tell everyone! — feeling wonderful."

"I wanted to thank you again for your wonderful book.  As always, you have brought the characters to be very personal and real as if you could meet them on the street.  This makes them, for me, individuals that you can identify with and care about...  I read the book in 2 days.  Congratulations and keep up the good work.  Put me on the list for your next release."

And, in the spirit of brevity, there was this one:

"fantastic" (that's all there was, really... I didn't edit it down!)


Anyone else out there done the book and ready to tell me what they thought of it?

Kind Of A Big Deal

In a week that saw Leap of Faith achieve profitability just 12 days after its release, I would've been happy just reporting on that fact here.  But I actually have much bigger news to pass along...

I've been lucky enough to be selected as the first Emerging Artist by the website BOOM-QA.  If you click on that link, you'll see that they've posted lovely profiles of both Leap of Faith and its author.  Much to my delight, they also sent out press releases to a couple of the local news outlets here in London, which may lead to some further exposure for the book, if things go well.  This is exactly the sort of opportunity I was hoping for with the new book, as I think it has a huge amount of potential if I can get it into enough hands.  Please help me spread the word about Leap of Faith.  

A Five Bike-Ride Week!

Three round trips downtown (Mon, Fri & today), a lunchtime ride to Westmount Mall and back (Wed), and an hour-long spin class (Tue night) all add up to my busiest biking week since I retired back in 2008.  The best part?  I wasn't feeling all that tired as I pedaled the last few kilometres home today, mostly uphill and into the wind.  It's been years since I've tested myself like this, but it's nice to know that even at 51 I can still handle this much exercise over a six day period.

Wind Turbines Don't Kill Many Birds

The next time someone tries to warn you against building more wind turbines "because of all the birds they kill", just refer them to this article (and chart) and you'll be good to go.

Approaching Profitability On Leap Of Faith

Just eight days after its release, Leap of Faith is very close to being "in the black" in terms of making a profit!  I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll get there later this week, which would be one of the quickest starts I've ever had for one of my books.  Thanks to everyone out there who came to our Launch Party two Sundays ago and to everyone who's bought a copy of the book since then.  It really helps to have the money rolling in so quickly as that gives me something to play with as far as promoting Leap of Faith, such as my current plan to do a flyer blitz in our neighbourhood for it.

I've gotten a little bit of feedback on the book so far, all of it very good, but I expect to hear a lot more over the next few weeks.  Really looking forward to that!

Launching Leap Of Faith

Another book launch party has now come and gone!

We had a great turnout for Leap of Faith's kickoff this afternoon, hosting 31 people along with Vicki, Susan Garner, Emma and ye olde author himself.  As usual, I didn't get nearly enough time with each attendee as I'd have liked, but that just seems to be the nature of the beast.  Hopefully everyone understands that, and no one felt neglected.

Before most of the people arrived, Emma took this lovely photo of Vicki, Rich and I showing off my four novels.  Not a bad start to my body of work, I'd say!

If you couldn't make the party but want to get your hands on Leap of Faith, get a hold of me any time now and we'll set up an opportunity to make that happen.  Though the list of readers of the book is still quite small at the moment, every bit of feedback I've gotten so far has been very positive.  Leap of Faith definitely seems to be a winner, and that's all I could ever ask for.

Raising A Moral Child

Via Tammy, here's a great article about various studies done on the topic of how to raise a moral child. There are lots of gems in there, including experimental proof of the old adage, "Actions speak louder than words."  It really puts the boot to the notion that parents can successfully preach one type of behaviour to their kids without living by those same standards themselves.  You really do have to model the sort of principles and values you want your children to adopt, it turns out.

How We're Losing Our Ability To Read Deeply

I found this article on how our human brains are adapting to the cursory reading style of the Internet fascinating.  I've always been a skimmer when I want or need to be, something I picked up back in elementary school when I was part of a trial speed reading program.  I found I could, with practice, dramatically increase my reading speed while only suffering moderate reduction in comprehension of the material.  To me, this seemed like a useful skill, though not something I'd want to do all the time.  As an example, I decided to read Heart of Darkness a year or two ago on Vicki's Kindle because I'd always been interested in learning how it influenced Apocalypse Now, one of my favourite movies, and yet had never tried the book before.  Within a few pages of starting it, though, I realized it wasn't written in a style that I'd personally enjoy.  So I kicked into high-speed and blew through it in about half an hour, picking up most of the key points of the plot without spending any time absorbing the nuances or even most of the word choices.  In general, though, I'd never read a book that way as I want to lose myself in it and savour every bit of it.

Anyway, it sounds like more and more people are (perhaps unintentionally) adapting their reading style to a similar cursory approach, thanks to the Web.  Studies are finding that people miss out on many of the details or even quit reading partway through, especially if they're reading on a screen rather than a paper page, simply because their attention wanders or they get bored.  It's pretty frightening to think that's the way current and future generations are headed, considering how much learning and unadulterated fun can be found by reading, if you invest yourself into it.

Needless to say, I hope that Leap of Faith and all my other novels continue to capture readers' imaginations and keep the pages a-turning.

Big News: Colbert To Replace David Letterman On Late Show

As a one-time fan of David Letterman (back in his NBC days) and a big-time fan of Stephen Colbert and The Colbert Report, today's news that the latter funnyman is taking over the former's spot on The Late Show is both exciting and worrisome.  Colbert's on-screen persona as a staunch conservative buffoon is, presumably, not the one taking over the hosting role on CBS.  It'll be the real Stephen Colbert, I would imagine, sitting behind the desk, rather than the satirical character he first developed on The Daily Show.  If so, it's exciting to think that we'll get to know the real man, but sad to consider losing the great figure he spent so many years perfecting.  I guess we'll have to wait and see just how it all plays out, though.

Launch Of Leap Of Faith Now Less Than A Week Away!

Six days from right about now, we'll be hosting a party to get Leap of Faith off the launchpad and up into orbit.  I've already heard from a few early birds who've gotten their hands on copies of my fourth novel ahead of the party, and they're all telling me that they can't put the book down.  I think binge reading may end up being a "major problem" where this book's concerned, if the first readers are anything to go by.  But what a nice problem to have...

How Long And Cold Was The Winter?

Well, we just pulled the corner back on the pool cover, intending to drop the submergible pump in and lower the water level... only to discover there's several inches of solid ice on top of the water!  We've actually never seen that before.  As Vicki says, it's probably partially due to the fact that we didn't have much in the way of mid-winter thaws this year, as well as all the ridiculously cold temperatures we've hit over the past three or four months.

So it looks like we'll have to wait a while for that ice to melt before we can begin to deal with the excess water in the pool.  What a crazy winter... it just doesn't want to end!

X:Men: Days Of Future Past Trailer Blows My Mind

This... looks... amazing!



"Days of Future Past," from Uncanny X-Men # 141 & 142, remains one of the best X-Men stories ever, even 30+ years later.  And so to see it adapted into a major motion picture, directed by Bryan Singer and starring (among others) Ian McKellan, Patrick Steward, Jennifer Lawrence, Hugh Jackman, Michael Fassbender, Peter Dinklage, Ellen Page and Anna Paquin?  Sheer fanboy joy!

It comes out May 23rd, a mere 7 and a half weeks from now.  By then I'll probably have seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier twice (we've already got tickets for this weekend coming up), which should make the waiting a whole lot easier.  What a great start to the year in terms of superhero movies!  (And considering the storyline of my latest novel, I'd say 2014 may just be the Year of Time Travel!)

Alien: Isolation May Be Just The Game For Me

As this hands-on preview of the upcoming Alien: Isolation notes, it's been a tough last stretch for gamers who also happen to be Alien fans.  I had such high hopes for the return of Aliens Vs Predator a few years ago and yet it totally let me down.  And then Alien: Colonial Marines ended up making the merely-lackluster AVP look like gold, by comparison.

Now, though, there's an incredible amount of excitement around Alien: Isolation, with its focus on horror and survival instead of gunplay and mayhem.  In other words, it has much more in common with Ridley Scott's 1979 Alien than James Cameron's Aliens from 1986 (both of which I love, though I prefer the original over the sequel).  The description of it, linked to above, makes it sound like exactly the sort of game I'd enjoy playing in the dark, squirming in my seat as I try to stay alive.

Of course, I've been fooled before... after all, both AVP and A:CM had lots of hype before they came out, too.  Here's hoping this time it doesn't all turn to shit when the product actually arrives.

[Update moments later: Another article I just read on the game mentions that it's not due out until October 7.  That's a long six months from now!]

Your First Small Sample Of My New Book, Leap Of Faith

We're just over two weeks away from the Book Launch Party for Leap of Faith, so I thought now might be a good time to publish the first snippet from it, just to whet everyone's appetite.  This excerpt is taken from the first chapter:

“Hey, I totally forgot to tell you,” I say to Keri-Anne as we take our dinner dishes to the kitchen following a long discussion of last night’s Mad Men.  “I met a guy today who claimed to be a time traveler.” 

“He actually said he was a time traveler?” Keri-Anne replies, her eyes wide and a skeptical look on her face.

“That’s exactly what he said.  ‘I’m actually a time traveler.’  Very matter-of-fact, like he’d just told me he wrestles alligators for a living.”  As I load up the dishwasher, I add, “And then he smiled.”

“C’mon, Maggie,” she responds, squinting at me.  “A time traveler?”

“I swear,” I tell her.  “Those were his exact words.”

“So what did you do?”

“I laughed, like he was joking.  And then I pretended to study Sunnyside’s dessert menu until he left the place.”

“And he had just come up to you, right out of the blue, to tell you this?”

“No,” I reply with mock seriousness, “we had a whole little conversation before that.  He came over to my table while I was waiting for the bill for my lunch, and asked if I could help him find the ROM.  He had a folded up map of Toronto in his hands.”

“An actual paper map?” Keri-Anne asks, surprised.  “Holy!  Maybe he really was a time traveler.  From the 1950s, by the sounds of it.  Did you ask him if he’d heard of Google Maps?   Or cell phones, computers, or that newfangled Internet thing?”

“No,” I laugh, “I just showed him where we were on the map, and where the museum is, and then we talked about the best route for him to take to get there.  He said he was planning to walk, and I told him it wasn’t all that far so he shouldn’t have any problem.”

“And…?”

“And then he thanked me, and was about to leave when he dropped the time traveling bomb on my head,” I tell her, as I start the machine going and motion Keri-Anne toward the living room.  “Sure you don’t want a beer for a change?  Or a glass of wine?”

“No thanks, I’m good with water, same as always.”

I grab a Blue out of the fridge, refill her glass with tap water and follow her to the other room.  She’s taken her usual spot, stretched out on the sofa that she and Gramps used to watch the TV from.  I set her water on the coffee table within easy reach, and then plunk myself down across from her in the recliner and take a long pull on my beer.

After a moment she asks, “Did you at least find out his name?  Before he turned out to be crazy, I mean.”

“Oh, of course I did.  I found out all about him, don’t you know?  His full name is William Christopher McBrewster the third.  He’s a Capricorn who enjoys moonlit walks on the beach, reciting poetry in the nude and rescuing animals from scientific experimentation.  He learned how to time travel from a Tibetan monk who tragically died just seconds after passing his secret on.”

Keri-Anne giggles all the way through my little speech, and then asks, “And did he happen to have a tin foil hat on, by any chance?”

“Not that I noticed.  Seriously, he seemed like a normal enough guy up to that point.  Well-spoken.  Polite.  Pretty good conversationalist, actually.  Mid-30s looking with a slight paunch.  Collared shirt, expensive slacks, nice shoes.  Not exactly what you’d expect from some nut-job off his meds, wandering along Bloor Street.”

I push the recliner back about a quarter of the way and settle myself in.   I might as well get comfortable, as I imagine we’re both going to be here a while.

“Anyway,” I continue, “you know what I always say: the men I meet inevitably end up being married, gay or total psychos.  At least this guy self-classified in the first few minutes, which was pretty considerate of him, when you stop and think about it.”

“OK,” Keri-Anne says, as she sits up to take a sip of water, “but what if he hadn’t?  Self-classified with the time traveler comment, I mean.  Would you have been interested?”

“You mean, would I have said, ‘Well, as a matter of fact, I’m headed to the Royal Ontario Museum myself today.  What say we make an outing of it and stroll there together?’  Is that what you’re asking?”

Smiling, she replies, “I just wondered what you thought of him, that’s all.  You said he looked like he was in his mid-30s.  That’s OK, right?  I mean, that’s within your acceptable age range, isn’t it?”

I laugh.  “‘Acceptable age range.’  As if.  I keep telling you: I don’t have a big long list of qualifications, when it comes to guys.”

“I wonder if Mr. Time Traveler’s married?” she asks, in a whimsical voice.  “Do you think there’s a Mrs. Time Traveler out there, somewhere?”

“Ha.  I definitely don’t have a clue.  We only talked for a few minutes, like I told you.”

“Hmmm.  Was he wearing a wedding ring?  Not that guys don’t sometimes take theirs off when they’re out of the house.”

“Geez, Keri-Anne, who notices whether somebody’s wearing a wedding ring when you only spend, like, two minutes giving them directions?”

“I only asked because… Well, if he’s in his 30s and not married, what could that tell us about him?”

“He might be desperate, which could only have worked to my advantage.  Is that what you’re implying?”

She laughs and shakes her head.

“Don’t worry, I’m not about to leave all this behind,” I inform her, sweeping my right arm up to take in the surroundings I grew up in, “to go traipsing around through time, like some Doctor Who companion.  Besides,” I add, leaning forward to pick up the paperback that’s resting beside the recliner, “I’ve got a really good book right now, so why do I need a man?  He’d just screw up my life, especially if he was going to show up tonight to apologize for a fight we’re going to have next week.”

A Perfect Day In Toronto

On Monday of this week Vicki and I headed to Toronto for the day.  I had been asked to get a high resolution scan of my Watchmen page for inclusion in an upcoming over-sized hardcover book of Watchmen artwork being published by comic company IDW.  They periodically release "coffee table books" featuring original art that's of particular interest to fans, and Watchmen certainly qualifies in that category (it's often referred to as "the Citizen Kane of comic books").  The editor of the art book, Scott Dunbier, had put me in touch with Toronto comic artist J Bone, whose work I'd recently enjoyed in the Spirit/Rocketeer 4-issue miniseries from IDW, and who had a high-res scanner that I could use.  Since we were going to Toronto to get that done, we invited Tammy and Ryan to meet us for dinner later in the day, and just like that: we had a day-trip planned!

I wasn't sure what to expect when we got to the artist's apartment, as I'd never met him before or even read an interview with him.  Any concerns we had, though, were completely wiped away in the first few minutes of the visit.  J greeted us at the door with a huge smile and made us feel completely at home.  His apartment was amazing: walls of bookshelves filled with graphic novels, art books, movie DVDs, and action figures of all kinds.  In other words, our kind of place!  Before long, J and I were geeking out on various comic and movie topics, and then he and Vicki realized they had classic Sci Fi books in common, and off they went in that direction.  J turned out to be one of the nicest and friendliest comic pros we've ever met, and we've met a lot in Chicago and elsewhere over the years.

More than an hour after we got there, we all remembered we were supposed to be scanning some artwork, and so we got busy with that.  Then it was more chatting and swapping stories, and before we knew it, we'd taken up two hours of J's time and Tammy & Ryan were waiting for us at the nearby restaurant.  Oops...  It'd been way too much fun and neither of us wanted to leave, but we had other fun to get to and J had artwork to finish for a deadline.  Vicki thought to grab a photo before we took off, though:

And we didn't leave empty-handed, as J very kindly gave me the first 3 issues of his current Image series with James Robinson, The Saviors.  I've since read and enjoyed them very much, and will be picking up all of the future issues at the store as they come out.  Yay: yet another creator-owned Image title for me to happily support!

We capped the day off with a wonderful dinner at a pizza place Tammy recommended, getting to spend a couple of hours with two of our favourite people.  Lots more excellent, non-stop conversation ensued about work, movies, TV shows and whatever else came to mind.

And then we braved a couple of white-outs on the 403 and 401 before making it back here safely, much to Vicki's relief (I was the one driving and yet my knuckles weren't white).

Definitely one of our best days, thanks to J, Tammy & Ryan!