Tidbits.

Hi ho, Saturday afternoon on the Labour Day long weekend, and time for some quick updates and comments.

A recent New York Times article discusses the issues I expressed in my posting on gaming in regards to real-world overlap.  It would seem that people are up in arms (sorry, bad pun) over the most recent addition to the first-person shooter lineup.  Medal of Honor is set in Afghanistan, and in the online multi-player version, players have the option of playing as American soldiers or as the Taliban. It would seem that various political figures find the inclusion of terrorists as playable characters to be "tasteless", in the words of British defense secretary Liam Fox.And, further to my opening comments in that gaming post regarding Starcraft II, I was surprised to discover that the voice actors for the game include such science fiction big guns as Armin Shimmerman (Quark from Deep Space Nine), Michael Dorn (Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation) and the part of Sarah Kerrigan is voiced by none other than Tricia Helfer from Battlestar Galactica.  Are things perhaps a bit quiet in the TV marketplace?My friend Chris informs me that a 3-D movie version of the Smurfs is in development.  Gosh, there's a clever idea...let's make a 3-D movie featuring blue people.  Boy, I wish James Cameron had thought of that.

I've just finished re-reading Peter Hamilton's Judas Unchained, the epic conclusion to the Commonwealth Saga.  The first book, Pandora's Star, is one and three-eights inches thick.  The second book is two inches thick and features visibly smaller type than its predecessor.

DAMN IT, PETER, THIS SHOULD BE A TRILOGY!!  IF IT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR TOLKIEN, IT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU!!Local comic book store The Comic Shop has relocated to an address further along 4th Avenue.  In the process of moving, they culled some of their "previously owned" stock and left it in front of the store with a crooked cardboard sign saying FREE.  As a result, when I was coming back from the gym on Tuesday, there were stacks of 70's and 80's Analog and Galaxy SF magazines and a variety of fantasy and science fiction novels just sitting there, looking for a good home.  Sigh...as I scooped up handfuls of books and jammed them into my gym bag, I probably looked like a member of the legion of back-alley scavengers who are constantly trolling for recyclable containers.  ("Oh look, poor fellow, he's probably going to sell those books to get money for booze or crack.")  I was terribly self-conscious about it - thank god it was late enough that the streets were almost empty.

Not so self-conscious that I didn't make two trips, though.  Hope you all have a pleasant weekend!

- Sid