Great Cover!

Another great cover that caused me to order the book. And the synopsis sounds really interesting too!

Currently Reading With My Son

I thought I'd poison my 12 year old's mind with romantic nonsense that I grew up on. It's working pretty well with this one, one of my favorite books. But reading with my wife in bed with us doesn't work out so well. Her cynical side shows up to blast us into the real world. :)

Robotbom.com Is Live!

One of my students at OU has gone live with a media review site. I encourage you to visit, take a look around, and comment if you see something you like.

Click here!

Coming Soon!

Really getting excited about this new film after seeing the trailer here.

Game On! Almost!

Gamer arrived in theaters on Friday after a, literally, explosive rush of trailers. However, those trailers inaccurately reported that Gerard Butler hadn’t kicked this much butt in 300 years. The quote was taken from 300, the Frank Miller movie. Actually, the battle of Thermopylae took place over 2000 years ago.

Once upon a time, I was a diehard gamer. Lately, my 11 year old son is the diehard gamer in the house. He has more time to play than I do, but I keep him stocked in all the latest game systems and games. He’s leading the life I would want if I had more time.

Both of us were excited about seeing Gamer. The whole idea of controlling a flesh and blood avatar during a real battle just sounded cool. Neither of us would really want to do that, but we couldn’t wait to see it played out on the big screen.

The movie is written and directed by Neveldine/Taylor, the duo that gave us Crank and Crank 2. Gamer possesses the same frantic pacing of the writer/directors’ first two movies. In fact, if you have seen the Crank franchise, you will have seen much of the style and visual effects of this movie. Gamer just seems too familiar visually.

Another too familiar aspect is the lack of character development throughout the movie. Gerard Butler is posited as the hero, Kable, and Michael C. Hall (TV’s Dexter) is the bad guy. The history of each, and of the shared moments between them, come too late in the movie. There’s no investment on part of the viewer, and by that point the clash is coming to a head, so all attention is given to the climax.

Gerard Butler is definitely action hero material and his physical performance is good. After seeing the film, I’d believe that Butler can walk into a room full of bad guys and take them all out.

Michael C. Hall as Castle, the man who invented the games Society and Slayers where flesh and blood avatars are mind controlled by other people, delivers a stunning bit of acting. He was a wicked combination of cool, competent, and cruel. The singing bit at the end totally blew my mind. I kept wishing I had a DVR controller so I could rewind that scene and watch it again. I’ll be buying the DVD primarily to watch Hall in action. I just wish there had been more of him in the film.

Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer) and Ludacris were virtually wasted as cardboard characters. And I didn't see anything of Logan Lerman’s character Simon that I could buy into, except for that really cool computer room he seems to live in.

I did enjoy the concepts that were explored in the film. The Society game was much like Second Life, only with graphic sex thrown into the mix. I found the scenes of the people playing the avatars in Society more disturbing than those who played in Slayers. If I don’t know if the filmmakers intended this kind of reaction on part of the viewer, but it’s strange how controlling someone in a twisted version of everyday life is somehow more perverted than controlling someone on a deadly battlefield.

Granted, the film had to straddle a thin line between action fans and, perhaps, science fiction fans, but I wish more attention would have been paid to the what-if scenario played out in the movie. The deeper issues of the questions raised were skimmed over in favor of blood and gore.

Gamer is a fun film for action junkies, but definitely lighter fare for someone interested in dealing with the intriguing possibility of the future.

Couldn't Believe It!

I went to Walmart on Tuesday with my 11 year old to get him some new books to read while at school. He usually reads more when he's away from his computer and video games, and he loves his entertainment.

We saw a young girl, about 12 or 13, standing out front with a sandwich board that read I'M A THIEF. I STEAL FROM PEOPLE WHO LOVE ME. Not Walmart -- people who loved her.

A young father, I'm assuming he was her father, sat on the bench beside her with his arms folded and all closed in. My son was shaken by the experience. I was offended. And several other store patrons were as well.

I went to the store management and complained, and they made certain the two left the premises.

I don't know what the girl did, nor to what degree she should be punished, but I really detested the act personally. Not only that, but an otherwise pleasant experience with my son was colored by explanations of why parents would treat their kids that way and the realization on part of my son that maybe he wasn't as safe from public ridicule as he believed.

I've raised five kids and I've never publicly punished one. I've taken away games, sports activities, and date nights. But I could never dream of doing something like this.

According To Chandler!

We went to my mom's today to plan putting a new roof on her house, which is going to be an adventure in itself. We went the usual way, the one my son Chandler has seen a lot.

Chandler, as regular readers of this blog will know, has aspergers. He kind of interprets the world in his own way, and assigns logic that he knows to things. Very bright kid but he continually thinks outside the box. WAAAAAYYYYY outside at times.

So today we see the Oklahoma Horseshoeing School. Seen it a lot of times. But today Chandler notices it and gives voice to the thought: "A school for horseshoeing? That's stupid. That game is really easy."

When I got through figuring out the correlation he'd made, and finished laughing, I explained.