The Billionty-Oneth Geek: Older Than 8 Since 1991

Today’s post is sort of a mixed bag but the catalyst is on a book that I read recently. They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children is a non-fictional book written by former Canadian general, Romeo Dallaire (author of the much acclaimed Shake Hands With the Devil).  As the title would suggest, the book details the controversial subject of child soldiers.  Although it is a problem that is seen in nations worldwide, much of the book is focused on the issue as it is in Africa. Dallaire paints a vivid and horrifying picture of this atrocity.  Some of it is told by things he has seen himself while others are accounts from former child soldiers (or those affected).  Dallaire walks the reader through why child soldiers are used and how they’re efficient, how they are trained, and the affect on the child and the community. The book is both effective and evocative because Dallaire is able to transfer us into the scenario. Aside from describing t...

It was only 5 years ago that Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man franchise came to an end, resulting in a separation between Raimi and Sony Pictures.  Yes, the much maligned 3 rd movie had its share of problems both on and behind the screen.  As a friend pointed out to me recently, “think about it... Forman was Venom!”.  Five years later, and I’m still trying to digest it.  Preposterous!  Well, Sony, not one to back down on the possibility of bags and bags of money, made the genius decision to reboot the franchise.  Now, under the helm of Marc Webb, the untold story begins anew. The Amazing Spider-Man tells the untold origin story, again, of the titular web-swinging hero.  This time around, they add slightly more to the context behind his parents, with his father being a scientist alongside Dr. Curt Connors.  After what is seemingly an accident involving the death of his parents, Peter Parker moves in with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben....

From the mind of Dan Wilson, Ph.D., author of such works as How to Survive a Robot Uprising and Bro-Jitsu: the Martial Art of Sibling Smackdown , comes Robopocalypse ; an oral retelling of the global robotic takeover. The book takes us through the history of the robot war – from the inception of the robot virus, to the robot uprising, the human uprising and the aftermath.  The story is told through a number of different voices – from people who were key to certain movements within the crisis. Before I picked up the book, I skimmed through some reader reviews. A common complaint was that the story was too similar to World War Z .  At first when I started reading the book, I thought the same, but as the story progressed, the similarities seemed few. There are similar concepts between the two books; both tell stories of the end of the world and both provide a collection of perspectives.  At least to me, that’s just about where the similarities end. W...

After several decades spent away from the genre, Ridley Scott makes his triumphant return to sci-fi with the much anticipated Prometheus .  Though the marketing approach sought to create a connection with Scott’s original Alien , the actual connections are few.  Although it takes place within the same universe, the direction of the movie is totally elsewhere. In Prometheus , we follow Holloway and Shaw, two archaeologists on Earth who discover ancient cave drawings around the world.  Normally, there would be nothing to it, but they find strong similarities between the drawings despite being oceans apart.  They interpret these drawings not just as pictures, but rather as a map to our supposed creator or creators.  With this in mind, they, along with a crew from the Weyland Corporation, embark on a journey galaxies away, following this map to our supposed creators.  They are led to a moon called LV-226 (not to be confused with the more familiar an...

I’m not usually one to purchase new releases, but 2 weeks ago, I bought Max Payne 3 on impulse.   There was a good deal, and I couldn’t pass on it.   Wal-Mart was selling it brand new for $40 and it also included as a bonus game, GTAIV: Episodes From Liberty City .   Two games for the discounted price of one.   And on a side note, what’s with this recent trend of rapidly reducing new releases from full price to discounted prices?   Are they not selling? A decade has passed and Max has gotten a little older.   He’s left his New York and Jersey roots for greener pastures.   Having left his former life, Max starts anew as a bodyguard for a rich and famous family in Sao Paulo, Brazil.   The Branco family consists of 3 brothers: Rodrigo, the wealthy businessman, Victor, the aspiring politician, and Marcelo, the young and obnoxious party-goer.   Think about that – the shit is surely to hit the fan.   And it’s not long before all th...

"Now you young twerps want a new name for your generation? Probably not, you just want jobs, right? Well, the media do us all such tremendous favors when they call you Generation X, right? Two clicks from the very end of the alphabet. I hereby declare you Generation A, as much at the beginning of a series of astonishing triumphs and failures as Adam and Eve were so long ago." — Kurt Vonnegut After many years of recommendations and the associated build-up, I’ve finally done it:  I read my first Douglas Coupland book.  Does he live up to the hype?  Well... Generation A tells a tale of a strange and alternate Earth, one where the bees have mysteriously disappeared.  As such, some of the things that we take for granted now are gone, like flowers and apples and such.  We are told the story from the perspectives of 5 different people around the world.  There’s Zack, a somehow model-esque redneck farmboy from Iowa.  Harj, a custo...

The other night, our church hosted a small gathering that was dubbed, “Theology on Tap”.  The idea was to head to a pub, somewhere casual and just talk theology.   Some points of discussion included the simplicity of God and also the grandness of God or the “Godness of God”, as our pastor quipped.  One person remarked that despite the grandness and infiniteness of God, that you, as a finite being, still matter. During the discussion, I was trying to process some points and understand things in terms of geek analogies. I started wondering if God sees the world in full high definition 1080p, and at the bare minimum, with a  refresh rate of 60 Hz.  At the same time, how each of us is like a single pixel on that globally expansive LED screen.  Our job as a pixel is simple; we are called to emit a light.  The light you emit can be of various colours and although you may be just a single pixel emitting a certain colour at a certain time, co...