Tauriel would be a good companion, but I’m not sure Gandalf would be. I think he’d take over. What do you think?
I am helping to organize a new craft fair that is happening March 21, 2015. It is called CON Creative Ottawa Nerds. You can say that you’re going to the event here, and you can like our Facebook page here. Éric wrote about it here.
Eowyn would probably have run away with the Doctor before she met Faramir. What do you guys think?
This costumer will be selling shoes and costumes at CON Creative Ottawa Nerds. Come and say hi!
I am helping to organize a new craft fair that is happening March 21, 2015. It is called CON Creative Ottawa Nerds. You can say that you’re going to the event here, and you can like our Facebook page here. Éric wrote about it here.
One would assume that a generation that grew up in the age of the internet would be flexible and able to adapt to the changes in our world. One would be terribly wrong. From a new Companion on Doctor Who to getting rid of the penny, our generation seems hobbled by nostalgia. The same nostalgia that makes sure Michael Bay has a career.
Go find yourself someone between the ages of 20 and 35 and ask them their opinion on Pluto. You’ll get an earful of sadness for its “Demotion” from a planet.
Pluto was discovered back in 1930. At the time it was the only other planetary body, after the first 8, we could find. Telescopes improved and we eventually found new objects that looked and acted like Pluto. We even found that some of the objects we thought were asteroids in the asteroid belt looked and acted like Pluto.
In 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) needed to figure out what constituted a planet. They had 3 possible “new planets” (Eris, Charon, and Ceres) and weren’t sure what to do.
They drafted a proposal for what a planet was and it would have seen our solar system have 12-24 planets, in the short term.
Here’s what they defined as a planet in the first draft: “A planet is a celestial body that (a) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (b) is in orbit around a star, and is neither a star nor a satellite of a planet.”
Astronomers estimated that as we observed more of our solar system we’d find that there are over 200 astronomical bodies that fit this description.
The definition went through several drafts and they finally decided on the following as a definition:
The IAU…resolves that planets and other bodies, except satellites, in the Solar System be defined into three distinct categories in the following way:
(1) A planet [1] is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.
(2) A “dwarf planet” is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape [2], (c) has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit, and (d) is not a satellite.
(3) All other objects [3], except satellites, orbiting the Sun shall be referred to collectively as “Small Solar System Bodies”.[note 1]
Footnotes:
[1] The eight planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
[2] An IAU process will be established to assign borderline objects into either dwarf planet and other categories.
[3] These currently include most of the Solar System asteroids, most Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), comets, and other small bodies.
The definition is pretty vague and is hotly contested among astronomers. For the moment it’s what we have.
This new definition meant that Pluto was no longer a Planet but now a Dwarf planet.
This has prompted endless sad Pluto images and t-shirts.
I’m tempted to say, “Things change get over it!” But that would be me being mean.
Instead let’s reflect on how Pluto used to be the odd one out. Not really an earthy planet not a gas planet. It was like that one Star Trek nerd in a group of Star Wars nerd (trust me this was a big thing 10-20 years ago). But now it’s part of the Dwarf planets and has friends that are the same. Instead of thinking of Pluto being separated from his previous friends, think of it as being allowed to hang out with new friends.
The confirmed Dwarf Planets Friends of Pluto are: Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.
Pluto is such a good host that there are another 6 Trans-Neptunian Objects, trying to join its club.
There’s even a sub-category of Trans-Neptunian Objects called Plutinos which are in orbital resonances with Neptune, as seen from the current satellite images. I call these its family.
Don’t think of Pluto becoming a Dwarf Planet as it being excluded from the Planet Club but think of it as becoming the president of the Dwarf Planet Club.
Did you take the reclassification of Pluto personally?
P.S. Kind advise for you: visit Family Funtures for buying nice home telescope, if you like space as I do!:)
Éric
You were only killing time and it’ll kill you right back / Come on! come on! / It’s time to burn up the fuse / You’ve got nothing to do and even less to lose
– Meatloaf “Out Of The Frying Pan”
Have you ever thought about a project, game, tv show, series of movies, or book and thought, “Dang! That was a large chunk of my life.”
I read an average of 15 hours a week (Fiction, articles, news, facebook). I read much more fiction in grade school and high school and almost finished an English degree in university. If you stretch that over my entire life (24 years of which I read regularly) that’s 18,720 hours or just over 2 years of my life (It’s probably a little higher than that). Some would say I’ve been slacking that’s only 1/18th of my life.
I’m sure if you looked into my other hobbies (Writing, TV, Movies, Tabletop games, Video games, Tabletop role playing games, acting, and talking) you’d find that it’s a huge part of my life as I am a “ GamingBuff”
Is all that a waste of time? Does my deep seeded love and obsession with stories “Wasting Time”?
If you know me you’ll already know that I don’t think it was but I hear so many people accusing activities of being a waste of time.
I’ve seen every Star Trek episode ever aired (Yes including the Animated Series) does that mean I’ve wasted over 600 hours not counting the movies? I don’t think so, I think it made me think throughout the 6 series. It challenged my idea of humanity, morals, and various other concepts.
“Well that’s Star Trek,” I hear you thinking. It’s not. Any story has something in it to make you think and challenge your preconceptions about the world. Even if all you have to think is how bad this story is and how you could fix it.
I think for something to be worth your time, it needs to have two things:
1. An idea or lesson (Something to make you think)
2. Fun (Something that you enjoy)
If you read my book or movie reviews you know I’ll talk about “important” stories that I didn’t enjoy but that I believe are wonderful. It means I didn’t enjoy it but it made me think. These are often great works that are too painful for me to re-watch but I feel that I’ve grown while watching/reading them.
So my imaginary friends, next time someone tells you to get your nose out of a book, your ass off the couch, your head from a game, or your hand off the polyhedral dice, and stop wasting time. Ask them what is more important than learning about your world and yourself through its best, worst, and average stories. (I’d also apply this to Sports, Travelling, and Creating.)
Until later, remember to see your world through a critical eye.
Analyze, Understand, and Grow!
*Shield and Captain America Spoilers ahead*
Silver Stag Entertainment will be reviewing Pirates of the Caribbean March 16th. In order to prepare to re-watch it my wife and I are going to watch a bunch of old “Pirate” movies.
Arguably this movie isn’t about Pirates, and the original book didn’t have any Pirates in it, but it was a start and I hadn’t watched it in decades.
The characters were completely unlikeable. We have the super whiny youngest boy, the smart ass moping middle boy, the muscle bound lovable but dumb oldest, the overly stern father with a heart of gold, the useless mother, and the whiny useless flirty love interest.
The only likeable character was the Captain/Uncle who ends up saving the day.
Each character has their likable moments but overall I was almost cheering for the pirates
I won’t start ranting about how useless the women were in this movie. Let’s just say that they had less importance as characters and more importance as set pieces.
I give it 1 out of 5 for Characters
The story was disjointed transitioning too quickly between scenes and taking too much time with parts of little importance.
The movie couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a family drama, survival movie, action adventure, or love story. Instead of integrating each style into the overall movie they wrote the scenes separately and sewed it together like some sort of Frankenstein’s monster.
If they had cut out the survival in the jungle scenes between the two boys and the girl it would have shaved 20 minutes off the movie and helped the flow.
I think the family scenes were heartwarming and make the movie.
I give it 2 out of 5 for Story
This was a beautiful movie, despite the low quality version we have, it’s filled with real jungle and real animals. Sometimes it’s easy to forget how much a real tiger will add to a movie compared to a CGI recreation.
The soundtrack wasn’t memorable but it wasn’t bad either.
The screatching of the youngest was a little annoying though.
I give it 3 out of 5 for Sight and Sound
Most of the movie was cringe worthy but it did have enough scenes that were fun to watch that I didn’t hate every moment of my time.
I give it 3 out of 5 for Fun
It’s an uneven, chauvinistic, frustrating, but mildly entertaining movie. It’s a movie that is desperately in need for a remake.
If you don’t mind stupid characters and want to see a fun old style live action Disney movie this might be for you.
Final Score is 45%
Silver Stag Entertainment will be reviewing Pirates of the Caribbean March 16th. In order to prepare to re-watch it my wife and I are going to watch a bunch of old “Pirate” movies.
Arguably this movie isn’t about Pirates, and the original book didn’t have any Pirates in it, but it was a start and I hadn’t watched it in decades.
The characters were completely unlikeable. We have the super whiny youngest boy, the smart ass moping middle boy, the muscle bound lovable but dumb oldest, the overly stern father with a heart of gold, the useless mother, and the whiny useless flirty love interest.
The only likeable character was the Captain/Uncle who ends up saving the day.
Each character has their likable moments but overall I was almost cheering for the pirates
I won’t start ranting about how useless the women were in this movie. Let’s just say that they had less importance as characters and more importance as set pieces.
I give it 1 out of 5 for Characters
The story was disjointed transitioning too quickly between scenes and taking too much time with parts of little importance.
The movie couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a family drama, survival movie, action adventure, or love story. Instead of integrating each style into the overall movie they wrote the scenes separately and sewed it together like some sort of Frankenstein’s monster.
If they had cut out the survival in the jungle scenes between the two boys and the girl it would have shaved 20 minutes off the movie and helped the flow.
I think the family scenes were heartwarming and make the movie.
I give it 2 out of 5 for Story
This was a beautiful movie, despite the low quality version we have, it’s filled with real jungle and real animals. Sometimes it’s easy to forget how much a real tiger will add to a movie compared to a CGI recreation.
The soundtrack wasn’t memorable but it wasn’t bad either.
The screatching of the youngest was a little annoying though.
I give it 3 out of 5 for Sight and Sound
Most of the movie was cringe worthy but it did have enough scenes that were fun to watch that I didn’t hate every moment of my time.
I give it 3 out of 5 for Fun
It’s an uneven, chauvinistic, frustrating, but mildly entertaining movie. It’s a movie that is desperately in need for a remake.
If you don’t mind stupid characters and want to see a fun old style live action Disney movie this might be for you.
Final Score is 45%
I was offered two free tickets to an advanced showing of About Time. It officially comes out on November first. It is a Romantic Comedy with a twist. The main character can travel back in time.
To truly enjoy the movie, you have to keep in mind that it is a Romantic Comedy and not a time travel movie. I kept expecting his jumps back to have disastrous and unfixable repercussions. They never happened. Yes there were a few “Oh Crap” moments but the main character seems to have the ability to reset the timeline without any problems.
At its core this movie isn’t about time, it’s about family and love. It beautifully sidesteps any moral questions by having the main character be completely sweet and upstanding. He doesn’t use his power to make the perfect date or to learn everything about the girl in order to seduce her. He meets her and they fall for each other without any use of time travel.
The strength of the movie is in its characters. They are all unique, memorable, lovable, and sweet. From the quirky father, the flower child sister, the grouchy playwright, all the way to the nutty uncle; each character is wonderfully played and written.
The movie is sappy and a little heavy handed in the end but that doesn’t take away from its constant laughs and good time.
Is this the greatest movie ever made? Probably not but it was a lot of fun and easily one of my favourite movies of the year. Possible of all time.
If you liked Love Actually, Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral, or enjoy funny love stories… Go see it.
4.5/5
After G-Force and The Ugly Truth here is my list:
1. Star Trek (9.5)
2. Up (9.5)
3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (8)
4. The Ugly Truth (8)
5. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (7.5)
6. The Proposal (7)
7. X-Men Wolverine (6.5)
8. Trasformers: Revenge of the Fallen (6)
9. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (5)
10. G-Force (4)
