The New Musings of a Quiet Geek

With the discovery of the time-waster that is Facebook, I find I no longer need to waste my time here. This is mainly why I haven't done any quizzes or other memes here in a cat's age. (I'm not a dog person...) They're all over there. Also why tell you all about what's not going on in my life when I can better waste time by making fake money off Lindsay Lohan's hi-jinks? Added to that, you can regularly follow the mundaness that is my life on Twitter. I don't want to say I'll never blog again. Frankly, this site and I have chronicled much over the years and I'm not ready to give it up fully. Every so often, something comes up worth sharing. Case in point, Thursday night, there was a retirement celebration for our outgoing OT professor complete with a guest lecturer from Boston, dinner and a vesper service designed by the professor herself. It was good Thai food, though admittedly not my favorite Asian cuisine, and saw many people I knew. My parents c...

Today, relatives came to my aunt's apartment (Did I mention that she lives in our building now?) to celebrate my grandfather's 87th birthday. Nothing completely annoying happened but it frankly tests my love of mature conversation. It didn't help that it was scheduled during a Red Sox game. I had heard all the news already. I don't care if my uncle is shopping around for truck to plow is driveway... I don't think I mentioned this last time I did it but for the second time, I was the roamer/floater for my Sunday school this morning. All you do really is wander back and forth between the classes and make sure there's no murder or molestation going on. OK, there's more of a point than that but you understand... Yesterday, I went to the mall and got my haircut. The guy who cut my hair asked me twice if it started raining yet. Do I get weather reports beamed to my brain every ten minutes? Sadly, no. When I returned home, I started to do some writing but was int...

Watched Stargate: Continuum last night. Overall, I liked it. Never have I seen an alternate timeline actually complain about getting fixed. Of course, they were going to anyway because yuck...Alternate timeline stories on Stargate all have similar elements. Teal'c is always First Prime to someone although making it Ba'al instead of Apophis was different. Also, because Vala is part of the cast now, having Quetesh was of course mandatory. (That was a cool part however.) When I was watching it, I thought Apophis being the last Ssytem Lord to resist Ba'al seemed strange but I realized today that Ba'al helped take down Anubis in the proper timeline so...Two questions/statements about Daniel: One, his losing a leg was glossed over as the movie went along. I realize a whole year went by but...And Two, why does he just happen to to know the name of the ship that brought the Stargate to America? I realize he probably read it somewhere or Catherine told him at some point but ev...

On Friday after work, I helped set up for Saturday's string quartet concert and then walked to the bank in the pouring rain. Fun times but I suppose if you walked in a nor'easter, that was nothing. Besides, I had Chinese food waiting... Saturday was the concert itself. I showed up when I was told but I really think I could wait at least another half hour before going. Since I'm "the guy" now, I may negotiate this. Nothing really that exciting happened. I did get approached by a woman who complained the water fountain just gave a "weak stream." She must have been using only one finger or something because I found, when I "palmed" it, it worked fine. I liked that they do afternoon concerts now as I can be home for dinner but attendance at this one in particular wasn't good. I arrived home to discover our movie-loving friend who I knew was coming up for the day was still there so we had pizza and beer and watched the following movies... Hel...

Some of you may be interested in knowing what's new in my life. A couple weeks ago, I finished reading Ernie's Ark which is a collection of short stories written by Maine author Monica Wood. Recently, I read on fellow Maine author Tess Gerritsen's website that she felt the short story format was dead. I agree it's dying but I'm not sure it's totally dead as this book, put out only a couple years ago, proves. The important factor here, I think, is that the 9 stories are connected; moderately in some cases, tightly in others. I enjoyed the book overall. Of course, given the format, I enjoyed some stories more than others... I enjoy accurately described Maine. We've been reading a lot of non-fiction in my book group so I was pleased someone else picked a fiction book. I think I missed it... Remember I mentioned the seminary was searching for professors in both Old Testament and New Testament? The appointments have been officially announced. In OT, they we...

Yesterday, I went to see the new Julia Roberts/Clive Owen picture Duplicity . Hearing it advertised, I assumed it was a MI-6 agent and a CIA agent having a relationship without revealing their respective allegiances. No, they've actually left their respective agencies and now are supposedly working a corporate espionage scheme for a company when, in reality, they're using the situation to raise enough capital to retire together. While my previous notion of the plot intrigues me more (and, since they didn't use it, I might someday) the movie was very well constructed and acted. If you need your characters to be "likable" and/or "admirable", I don't recommend the movie but if pathological liars and corporate espionage intrigue you on any level, go see it! Because I always comment when I series ends, I was pleased overall with the end to Battlestar Galactia this past weekend. I was pleased they landed in prehistoric Africa instead of 1980 or 2009 or w...

Created by Train Horns

Though it snowed a lot yesterday and it looked like every class was canceled, the seminary had the final New Testament professor candidate make his presentation. Since no one answered the phone when I called three times, I assumed they were closed so I didn't go. Here's what I know. Candidate One was a woman who admitted she just turned fifty. (Age I think is less of an issue here but there you go.) During her presentation I thought she was a bit shy and I freely admit her "introduction" to her topic was more interesting than the topic (Cleansing in Luke and Acts) itself. When I saw her again, at our weekly chapel service, it happened to be Ash Wednesday, she was much more relaxed and, to be brutally honest, I liked her more... Thursday was our visiting professor's turn to be permanent. On paper he's more qualified than the first one. He seemed very nervous and I was very bored. His topic was connecting the Psalms to the Gospels; mainly Mark. One of the profe...

There was more than one thing I wanted to discuss but I can only think of one thing at the moment. I just finished reading When A Crocodile Eats The Sun by journalist Peter Godwin. Of course not counting Winter Storm and The Bone Garden , this was my favorite book we have read for my book group. I was pretty much alone in this as the general consensus was it was too depressing and badly edited. Makes you wonder what they really thought of mine; although, I freely admit mine was badly edited... It was an autobiographical view into this white man visiting his parents and past in his native Zimbabwe. Part of the book dealt with his relationship with his father and part dealt with the geopolitical scene in the country. Even I admit that there was probably too much of the latter but I think, overall, it was a good mix.

I wasn't impressed with Hugh Jackman's hosting job. Will Smith was said it best when he implied the guy must be napping. The musical mash-up sucked. It had no place at the Oscars. That's a Tony thing and even less people watch that awards show so do the math! Letterman's "Oprah/Uma" turd back in the day was more interesting. The Academy voters seemed particularly lazy this year. Slumdog Millionaire and Benjamin Button were nominated for and pretty much won everything. I haven't seen either movie but come on! Oddly, neither got any nods for acting. Heath Ledgwer's win though deserved was only because he was dead. As Will Smith also pointed out, action movies have the fans get the shaft when it comes to the accolades. Sure many deservedly win Razzies but there have been some awesomely acted superhero flicks in the last few years and yet they're relegated to the dumb technical awards that are blown through in ten minutes. Finally, what the hell ha...

In the last week or so, I've watched two completely different movies for two completely different audiences. First, The Spiderwick Chronicles . This movie was clearly trying to cash in on Harry Potter and perhaps even the Narnia movies. This was also based on a book series but instead of just one book per movie so they could legitimately milk it, this movie had plot and storyline from books 1-3 and 5. I really don't understand their reasoning here but, not having actually read the books, I can't complain too much. As for the movie itself, it pales in comparison to the other series mentioned above. Again, I haven't read the books here where I certainly have in the other two cases so maybe I'm ignorantly bias. While I honestly didn't even notice both of the brothers were played by Freddie Highmore, this role wasn't as good as Charlie never mind the kid, who's name escapes me, in "Finding Neverland." This wasn't mother Mary-Louise Parker...

Last night, friends from the seminary, along with three friends of one of the students, met downtown for drinks and to hear a musician known by my boss. Yes, I was the token male in a group of 6 women. (Like immortals, apparently, there can be only one. But there must be one.) The music, food and entertainment was great. I mean who wouldn't like a block of Tom Petty on a Friday night? Of course, it wasn't his three best tunes but what can you do? I close with a classic Valentine's article I wrote for a college website I maintained my senior year: "Valentine’s Day is almost upon us. The special semi-formal is scheduled for tonight and, mingled with coldness, love is in the air. Or is it? How do single people celebrate the day? It’s not like they have that special someone to shower with chocolate and jewelry. (Being a small college community, just how much of that can a lowly student afford anyway?) "The only option I see is the event mentioned above. School dan...

This is a time of change at the seminary where I volunteer. By the end of the month we'll have new professors in Old and New Testament. This week, we were treated to a lecture and Q & A over pizza with finalists for the position vacated by our retiring OT professor. Without getting into too much detail, both are women aged mid-30's to mid-40's and "of color." I choose to believe this is a coincidence but it sadly may not be. (The age thing in particular.) Both got the question of winters in Maine and both lived in New England for 3 or so years. Both are also ordained in some form of the Baptist church. The first one, a native of Cuba, had her PhD but no practical teaching experience and a very thick accent but very dynamic. Her topic compared her upbringing to the OT, particularly a couple of the women. It was impressive. This wasn't well attended by either students or faculty. Today, the second one, a "military brat" from the south, who is sti...

1. Yeah, so no eventful bus rides. It was kind of close making the bus home and for some reason the Metro bus driver didn't give me my free ride from the station. Maybe they dumped that arrangement due to the economy or maybe there's limits... 2. Wrote 10 pages. Actually, I wrote 16 but thanks to the cat, six were lost. She also managed to turn the display on my mother's laptop completely upside-down. Totally weird... I'm at about 75 pages now and have ideas on how to finish. I'm not sure how long it'll end up but will probably be comparable to the last one... 3. Watched many a TV movie but I will discuss 13 Going On 30 with Jennifer Garner. I think she is a much better actress than people give her credit. She acted like a 13 year old to me; at least one from the more innocent '80's... (Comparatively!) I loved her imitation of the "Thriller" dance as well as the dance she did to "Love is a Battlefield." 4. Susie was fine with it jus...

Because I know you all care, I figured I'd get on this here blog to report that tomorrow I'm back up north to cat-sit. My parents are going on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic for about a week and we all figured poor Susie would be happier not only having someone there full-time instead of just dropping by once a day but someone she knows and loves. This is where I come in... I hope to use this time to finish Spring Thaw ; as is the tentative title of my current novella. (I bet none of you can guess what it's a sequel to...) I figure I have only forty or fifty more pages in me while keeping the door to the plot bunny hutch tightly shut. Though the main plot of the third book in the series, unoriginally titled Summer Heat at this time, has so far eluded me, scenes that didn't make the cut for this book will surely be in it... Back to Spring Thaw , is there precedence, if you signed only a one book deal as I did, for finding a different publisher for a sequel? U...

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo .

The main point I want to get across here is the finale of Stargate: Atlantis was much better than the one for SG-1 . For one, they finished the storyline. I thought it was both touching and predictable they killed off Hammond given that Don S. Davis had recently passed. Oh, I would be remiss not to point this out, when Major Davis was introduced, Carter was only a captain and now is a "full bird" colonel hence outranking him. Yet, no tension. The consummate professional he is... (I will point out here that my cousin and I agree Helen Magnus is a much more interesting character than Sam Carter...) I'll be curious to see where the Atlantis writers go with this new development presented at the end of the show; which actually was tres cool... Other than Ronon, and especially Teyla, wanting to go home someday, what would be the point? Sure that alliance that recently put them on trial would be pissed they left the Wraith free to prey on them but other than that... Nit Pic...

I wonder if that's significant for a Hot Stove talk... I think it's time to talk a little Red Sox. I have no problem disposing of Coco Crisp for a relief pitcher because he really isn't needed and pitching always is. The signing of Rocco Baldelli is an interesting one. I think, though am not really sure, he'll be able to play all the outfield positions where as they only used Crisp for center. (I was pretty sure Crisp played more positions for the Indians but maybe I made this up because he didn't for the Sox...) If this is true we can give all three positions days off including Jason Bay who hardly ever got one. If the Sox are able to resign Mark Kotsay, who can play first as well, things may be more complicated. The return of Josh Bard in some ways is an even more interesting development. Bard stunk catching Wakefield meaning he ain't doing that again. At least that's my thought... Not having convinced Jason Varitek to retire and take a coaching position...

As some of you know, the book group I am part of at my church, decided my book would be a good one to read over the holidays. We discussed it yesterday afternoon. It went much better than I thought it would, honestly. The format of our monthly meetings is to just discuss the book of the month but, since I the author was there, it turned into a Q & A with moi. I'd have to re-read the interview I did for the paper for instance but this may have been the first time anyone asked me why I picked a female protagonist. The answer simply is I wanted the challenge. (The consensus was I handled this fairly well.) This was definitely the first time I was asked about what a neutron bomb actually was. This was probably the first time I discussed Winter Storm with a fan of the political thriller genre so I was pleased she was engrossed by the plot. I conclude this section with a couple humorous exchanges; at least to me: Woman: The airport scene in [Geneva] was quite accurate. Me: Really? ...

Fred Claus : This is the story of Santa's older brother Fred (Vince Vaughn). The plot is about an evil efficiency expert played by Kevin Spacey trying to end Christmas because he didn't get the present he wanted as a child; a Superman cape no less. Spacey's character reminded me a lot of Lex Luthor but somehow it worked quite well...Nick Claus was played by Paul Giamatti and his was a combination of Tim Allen and George Wendt. (What? You still have not seen Santa Baby ?) Kathy Bates as their mother was da bomb... I do have a couple nit picks. One: the female elf was much taller than the other elves. Was she only half-elf? Two: If Santa's whole family is immortal, why did the whole family age enough to be gray-haired but not Fred?