Ringworld and kabobs
A poster on websnark this weekend pointed out exactly what’s bothering me about the Tom Cruise War of the Worlds trailers; they make it look like a run-of-the-mill disaster flick. Instead of concerning invading aliens, most of the scenes in the trailer could be cribbed from any asteroid impact – tidal wave – volcano – invading commies / killer bees / killer tomatoes / plague-carrying R.O.U.S. – movie.
Finally finished Ringworld’s Children. It was substantially better than The Ringworld Throne, and had an interesting bit at the end that nevertheless seems somewhat implausible for a Larry Niven novel. Still, two months to finish a single genre hardcover is a depressing record for me, and the Public Library isn’t much happier about it. 🙁
The hero contracts a virus which makes him hyper-intelligent, among other physical changes of mixed desirability. (He becomes a Pak Protector, for those familiar with Known Space.) He uses his new intelligence to solve certain problems, but desires to lose the other physical changes, because they pose a threat to his continued well-being around normal humans. The hero enters a nanotech-powered medical unit, and is rebuilt using his original DNA template. He briefly regrets losing his hyper-intelligence, but moves on.
It’s easy to see how a nanotech med unit would rebuild a bone, or an organ, but I wonder how it knew how to rewire his brain safely. What reference material did it use?
Saturday, I went to a very good party and that’s all I’ll say here 🙂 Sunday was mostly errands, as I muzzily recall. Both nights I was up until 3 AM, which makes it pretty hard to adjust to a work schedule when the weekdays begin again.
Memorial Day, however was quiet and fun. A few friends came over, and Rain and Laura grilled beef kabobs and garlic chicken (yummy!). I figured out how to hook up the sound on the laptop properly, so the TV played an Internet radio station and the iTunes visuals while we did two rounds of Talisman (the game goes faster if you take a level every 5 XP instead of 7 XP). It was a good evening.
Rain leaves for Wizard World on Thursday… hope she has fun… I still hope to make it to Dragoncon!
Tags: books, conventions, gaming, parties, technology
If they show you the aliens, though, that’ll kill it!