Thoughts from Starlight Cascade

Just finished up with Doctor Who (2005) Season5 last night and it was a doozy. We had actually seen the last 2 or 3 episodes when they came out live two years back, but it was a good refresher and they made a lot more sense with 5 years of shows behind them.
Cliff hangers yet again make us want to continue *right away* but other things get in the way.
Hopefully we can have all of Season 6 done in the next week and get caught up to real time in Season7.

We bought tickets in advance, had dinner in town and arrived at the theatre 35 minutes before showtime. No lineups. Hmmm.. Each of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy had long long long lines for both ticketless and ticketfull holders.
Went in, got into line anyway as the tickets did not indicate which theatre it was in or where we would get glasses. Theatre #1 and here are your glasses. Picked up a ridiculously expensive $8 bag of popcorn and went through the gate and had the tickets scanned.
Reserved seating for the first time was a novelty but it worked out. still no lineups.. the preshow started 30 minutes before start time and ran through all kinds of commercials and movie trailers.
People continued to stream in over the next 30 minutes and come showtime start it was mostly full. At showtime start we were told to put on the 3D glasses, whereupon we were subject to another 15 minutes of 3D commercials. Arrg.

3 hours after that it was over. The time did go by fairly well but there was too much in the movie that should have easily been cut out. Changes to the novel included many side issues that did not even exist and were there for the glory of 3D in your face.
The reclining seats were nice at first but became more of a liability when attempting to stretch out, they did not resist and you simply reclined, not leaving room to do the original stretch.
The theatre sound was enhanced… a lot of subwoofer rumbling.. hope the one next door have good sound insulation. The 3D effect was straining.. but maybe only because it went on for so long. The glasses appear to be two cross polarized lenses (which made the image dimmer with the glasses on) and fit ok over top of eyeglasses. It worked best when in a small set area.. you would imagine it was a live stage, and that worked quite well. The butterfly was overthetop, with it appearing out into the crowd itself.

It was great to see Frodo again and Agent Smith… err I mean Elrond in Rivendell. The ponies ran off? I thought the trolls ate them. Oh well, maybe it was for the children.. or the animal activists… “the virtual digital projections can’t eat ponies! that’s horrible!”
Or something like that. The Goblins were gross, hard to distinguish from Orcs. How did Gollum drag that goblin so far so fast when it took him a good 20 seconds just to get him out of the frame?
Wow… such a small short book and such a long movie… and only part 1 of 3.
I shudder a little thinking what he (Peter Jackson) might do with the next two parts.
Some words of advice… MAKE THEM SHORTER!

All in all still recommended. But only once. The next time will be at home with a pause button.

I started reading Tom Clancy way back when “The Hunt for Red October” was released in 1984. The next few books in time tailored nicely into my military interests of the time (Red Storm Rising, Patriot Games). Then I stopped as his writing shifted into a collaborative universe that just didn’t work for me.
Now a decade of two later, I am looking back at his newer work and have just picked up “Dead or Alive” (2010). If it works out (we’ll find out in the next week or so), I’ll be looking for
“The Teeth of the Tiger” (2003) and “Locked On” (2011).

I also recently repurchased “Dream Park” (1981) when my hardcover version failed to turn up in a recent browse through the book shelves. Larry Niven has been one of my most favourite best-est authors since Greg lent me “Protector” (1973) sometime in the late 1970’s. I am now awaiting arrival of Man-Kzin Wars XIII, shipping sometime at the end of January, “Shadow of Freedom” (2012) By David Weber, and my first signed-edition-before-I-bought-it “On Basilisk Station” 12 anniversary signed edition, shipping in early April 2013.

As far as I can tell, I have the complete mainstream works of Niven, Pournelle, Moon, Weber, Heinlein, Foster, Robinson and Robinson, Brin, and many of the “classic” period authors.
It’s getting time to look at revamping the library index again… Has anyone seen an android table app for portable library lists? Ie you just can’t go into a bookstore anymore and purchase something without a good chance of already having it and not knowing. You need an uptodate easily references and searchable listing/index.

That’s about it for current authors and near term releases that I know of. Always on the lookout for new authors but that is much more of a crap shoot with far more misses than hits.