Transformer Fan | Comic Collector | Podcast Host: YOSHICAST / TransMissions

Ender’s Game Book Review

I just finished reading “Ender’s Game“.

Ender’s Game (1985) is a science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. The book originated as the novella “Ender’s Game“, published in the August 1977 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Elaborating on characters and plot lines depicted in the novel, Card later wrote additional books to form the Ender’s Game series. Card released an updated version of Ender’s Game in 1991, changing some political facts to accurately reflect the times.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The story keeps presenting you with twists and turns that you don’t see coming. I am not a big fan of reading science fiction. Never have been. I have always preferred to watch it. Star Trek, FireFly, Red Planet, all great Science Fiction. But reading it has always been a difficult concept to me. So I think it says something that this is a Science fiction book I could read. Not only read, but enjoyed a lot.

While writing this post I have been doing some reading ont he author Orson Scott Card. I have to say that I am not to impressed by the man himself. Sadly, this is affecting wether or not I will go on and read the sequel books.

Dungeons & Dragons: Mazes and Monsters

Mazes and Monsters vhs cover I wrote in an older post that I learned about the movie “Mazes and Monsters“. It’s a 1982 movie about a group of college students and their interest in a fictitious role-playing game (RPG) of the same name staring Tom Hanks. The film was adapted from a novel of the same name by Rona Jaffe. Jaffe had based her 1981 novel on inaccurate newspaper stories about the disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III from Michigan State University in 1979.

Being into Dungeons and Dragons as much as I have been lately, I thought it would be fun to Netflix this movie and watch it. Well I did just that. I Netflix it, and watched it this last weekend.

Mazes and Monsters was not to bad. Actually, it was bad. It is a low budget, 1982 movie. The source film they used for the DVD transfer was not the best. There times where the film looks faded and spotty. At one point in the movie there is a bug that crawls from the bottom of the screen, to the top. (How the hell does that happen? How dose that end up on the film?) But you know, for me, it was a fun and silly movie to watch. Because of that it was not to bad.

There are even a few scene that take place inside the World Trade Center.

To Be Continued…

Book Review: The Time Machine

I just finished reading “The Time Machine” by, H. G. Wells. It seems like this should have been a book I should have read as a class assignment when I was in highschool. But regardless that I am now 28, a good book is still a good book no matter your age.

I truely enjoyed reading this book. The way it was writen was very beautiful.

The book’s protagonist is a scientist and amateur inventor living in London who is never named; he is identified simply as The Time Traveller. Having demonstrated to friends using a miniature model that time is a fourth dimension, and that a suitable apparatus can move back and forth in this fourth dimension, he builds a full-scale model capable of carrying himself. He sets off on a journey into the future.

Until I read this book my only ideas of what the future might hole where somethings I took from Star Trek, or the movie Back to the Future. But this book opened my mind to so many other possabilities that our future my hold. It was a really good read.

Playing Rock Band

Last Friday a bunch of us all gathered at our friend’s house to hang out, visit, and to play Rock Band which Chris had brought over. Rock Band is a video game that lets you simulate being in a band. Now, there are currently two types of games like this. Rock Band and Guitar Hero. I am personally more of a fan of the game Guitar Hero then Rock Band. I just think it plays a little bit better then Rock Band. But they both have the same idea behind them. You have plastic instruments (bass, guitar, drums, microphone) that you use to play the game with.

Hannah snapped some quick video of 4 of us playing to Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer”. I am playing guitar, Rose is on vocals, Carley is on bass guitar and Zaine is playing the drums.

Now you may notice that I am bouncing around like a fool while we play. I do this for two reasons.

I really love music. I really get into it and enjoy it.
To entertain people. There are about 5 or 6 people off camera view you can’t see who are just watching the four us play. I know personally i would rather be playing a video game then watching someone else play it. So I feel that the least I can do is try and make it as entertaining as possible for all those who are waiting for their turn to play the game.

This kind of mentality goes back to when I lived in Anacortes and used to play in a band. I was a poor high school student. I know the kids coming to see my band play where also poor high school student’s, and they are getting charged around ten bucks a show to see us play. So I always felt they should get their moneys worth by exaggerating my playing, showing off, just giving them something to look at. Making sure the kid in the back of the venue felt just as entertained as the kids near the front of the stage. I always try to take my band practices very seriously. Always wanting to get better at the drums and the music we were playing. I always felt that shows we played was when we are not longer musicians but entertainers. People are coming to a rock show to be entertained, not to just see you stand in the middle of the stage playing a guitar and signing with your eyes closed.

But I digress.

Guitar Hero (like Rock Band) Is a great game for parties and just fun. It’s one of the very few games I own that i still come back to and play all the time.

Richard Proenneke

The last couple of times I have gone back home to Washington State for a vacation, I have caught a film on P.B.S. called “Alone in the Wilderness“. It’s a film my mom and brother Abe, really enjoyed and they thought I would too.

This film is more of a documentary about Richard Proenneke, who retired in 1967 to Twin Lakes Alaska where he built his log cabin home by hand, and all by himself. The film consists of shots of Proenneke performing tasks around his cabin, canoeing and walking, and views of wildlife, along with narration. For shots of himself (since he was alone), Proenneke fixed the camera in place, and then performed his tasks. This would necessitate him returning to the camera after walking or canoeing away.

Proenneke originality was creating this video intending to be used as step-by-step instructions for creating a hand-built structure. He lived in his cabin for 30 years, only returning to the lower 48 states occasionally to be with family.

In 1999, at age 82, Proenneke returned to civilization and lived the remainder of his life with his brother in California. He died of a stroke April 28, 2003. He left his cabin to the Parks Service.