_www.FantasyLibrary.com [Visit Who Is Joseph Teller?] Synthesis & Synchronicity 044

Synthesis & Synchronicity #44

Laundry For the first time in many months, both our wash machine and dryer and working, accessible and available. This means I won't be risking putting out my back, and wasting half a day of my life each week in a laundromat. I just hope that it lasts.... the water level in the basement, thanks to the recent weather, is getting to the point where we need top worry about shorting out the equipment (again).

Time Usage: As the sidebar makes obvious, I've been making use of the extra time caused by our lack of roleplaying gatherings this past weekend by increased reading and viewing. So some further details from the sidebar will follow first.

Return Of The King : We (Kiralee, Cindy & I) went to see the Lord of The Rings : Return of the King on Sunday with a couple of friends at Feshpond. It was a good thing that we pre-ordered tickets with Fandango (which we normally don't do) as it ended up a full house. Overall it was enjoyable, and Kiralee only had about 3 complaints about the cuts from the book (though she did go on about those over dinner for a good hour).

I liked it, though like many things in fandom I am not fanatical about Tolkein (and so had no real complaints). Some of the acting could have been better, and the 'Elf must do Wirefu and defy gravity with CGA' bits were a little overdone (as they were in the previous films too). The paths of the Dead worked much better in the movie than in the books, and were graphically very impressive.

According to the press the 3rd film is doing the impossible in Hollywood, making more money that its predecessors.... doing some 125.1 million in boxoffice since the open on Wed. (the 1st film did 94 million, and the Two Towers 102 million). I just hope this doesn't go to the director's head.... rumor on the net is he is considering doing the Hobbit. Although he could be competent, I think this would be anti-climactic after this accomplishment and what he should do is instead use this as a chance to instead do something of merit and message (and also avoid doing say yet another comic book movie or yet another unnecessary comedy film). There are plenty of great books and stories that he could turn into a fabulous film. And if he had to do something light or sf/fantasy, maybe he would be the man to do Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker books....

Battlestar Galactica (Revisited) We taped this when it played on Sci-Fi and this was our first chance to see it, watching the entire thing in one sitting (in preparation for seeing LOTR which was nealry as long once they added in the trailers). Anyway, this was less than impressive. Not bad TV, but way too geared towards a propaganda film for the current war, and too much a 'setup' for a potential series pilot. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone as being really worth the time spent, as they 1) Tossed out a lot of the premise of the original setting 2) Turned too many characters inside out and 3) More or less had very few likable characters. Actually the most interesting character was the newly appointed President of the Colonies and her struggles to maintain control over the military and to save the civilian population from destruction while battle-hungry old hawks wanted to go on the offensive after clearly the war. This was a character that didn't exist in the original series, and was more human than the rest in many ways (and less hung up on her own petty life than they were). I didn't expect too much of this going in, and it failed to so totally bore, irritate or offend me to make me give up in the middle. If it had been a movie theatre/dvd item rather than a tv movie I probably would have felt financially cheated.

Wi-Fi : I just had an interesting chat with some vistors to our city who wer every confused about the state of things around here. They're from Oregon, and were surprised by the absolute lack of public free Wi-Fi hot spots in Cambridge and Boston. In Oregon, Seattle and San Francisco free Wi-Fi is everywhere, nearly every coffeshop, cafe and such offer it as a free public service, while here in New England (except for Newbury Street in Boston) there is nothing available except the Starbucks pay spots. Nothing. It reminds me just how money-hungry this place can be, how overly connected to concepts of turnover rather than repeat business much our retail and food places are concerned, and how foolish the businesses are that follow such policies. We also pay a lot more for internet access than they do... lots more.... for cable modem, dialup, DSL or other connection methods. Just one more reminder that I'm a Stranger in A Strange and unfriendly land.

Solstice : Tonight, of course, is the Winter Solstice, the longest night. It is a celebration of light for many Neopagans (like us) a time to burn candles from dusk to dawn. We'll be huddling down at home and sharing time with each other quietly this year. Best wishes to all.

---