Geekmas 2016: The System Works.

This seems a little harsh....

A somewhat delayed wrap-up (no pun intended) to the 2016 holiday season this year, due to equally delayed shipping for a couple of my seasonal gifts. However, shipping glitches aside, I have to say that this year was one of the most successful in terms of people reading the wish list that I had posted here, and then following through on the suggestions. (Many additional thank-yous to my girlfriend* Karli for managing this process via her blog and ensuring that there was no duplication in selecting gifts from the list.)

On the other side of the coin, it was also most definitely the least successful year for shipping as well. As it turned out, the quondam Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (now MoPop) doesn't ship outside of the United States, which immediately took the Star Trek movie posters out of contention as possible gifts. (How strange that an institution that deals with themes involving all of time and space would refuse to ship to Canada.)  Alternative Star Trek posters didn't trickle in until early January.  I also ended up with two copies of Naomi Novik's Uprooted just because my benefactor received two of them, for whatever reason.

However, the most impressive shipping gaffe involves my workplace gift exchange. I received an IOU from my Secret Santa (AKA my office mate Bill), who was mortified by the absence of a shipment containing my presents as the 25th drew near. As January wore on, he became increasingly embarrassed by this continued lack of fulfillment.  He harassed the shippers, terrorized his postie, and finally arranged for the order to be re-sent.  Shortly after that, a package arrived on his doorstep, almost a full month after Christmas and almost two months after his original order - with a postal label that explained everything. (Well, the delay at least.)

I think that if a package leaves Connecticut with Vancouver as its destination, Sweden is probably the long way round, even by the convoluted standards of international postal shipping.  Now let's see if the replacement shipment takes the same route.

Once everything was in hand, it was certainly an impressive haul:  in addition to Uprooted, I received Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace, Ian McDonald's Luna: New Moon, and Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear, which reads surprisingly like a well-written fan entry into Cherie Priest's American steampunk Clockwork Century series.

On the video side, three excellent episodes of Doctor Who - The King's Demons, with Peter Davison, Tom Baker in The Stones of Blood, and The Moonbase, a fascinating partial Patrick Troughton episode with existing audio only for two of the chapters, and the missing video filled in with animation. Part of Bill's gift was a beautifully transferred Blu-ray edition of The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Karli gave me a long desired copy of The Day of the Triffids**.  Amazon.ca gift cards allowed me to purchase the entire run of Star Trek: The Original Series on Blu-ray, along with Star Trek: Beyond and X-Men: Apocalyse in digital and Blu-ray formats.

 

The most unexpected choice from my list would be the Halo UNSC M6 blaster, which I included on a whim but never expected to receive. It's surprisingly well made for a child's toy, and feels sturdy and nicely sized for an adult grip. But forget using it on Jaq the Cat, I'd be reluctant to aim this thing at a person - it's rated to shoot the supplied rubber-tipped darts 70 feet, which means that it has quite a punch in the ten to fifteen foot range. All in all, a much appreciated addition to my science fiction armoury - thanks, Karli!  And thanks to everyone else who read my list of suggestions, and followed through so considerately and generously.

Damn...now I have to come up with a new list...

- Sid
 

* My gorgeous girlfriend Karli, to be completely accurate.

** Full disclosure:  as far as I can tell, there's only one extant DVD or Blu-ray edition of this movie, and to be honest, it's not a fabulous transfer.  Which doesn't make me any less pleased to have received it, but it's sad that they didn't do a better job.

"Fine and strong and simple."

Glancing back, they saw a small cloud of dust, with a dark centre of energy, advancing on them at incredible speed, while from out the dust a faint ‘Poop-poop!’ wailed like an uneasy animal in pain. Hardly regarding it, they turned to resume their conversation, when in an instant (as it seemed) the peaceful scene was changed, and with a blast of wind and a whirl of sound that made them jump for the nearest ditch, It was on them! The ‘Poop-poop’ rang with a brazen shout in their ears, they had a moment’s glimpse of an interior of glittering plate-glass and rich morocco, and the magnificent motor-car, immense, breath-snatching, passionate, with its pilot tense and hugging his wheel, possessed all earth and air for the fraction of a second, flung an enveloping cloud of dust that blinded and enwrapped them utterly, and then dwindled to a speck in the far distance, changed back into a droning bee once more.

Toad sat straight down in the middle of the dusty road, his legs stretched out before him, and stared fixedly in the direction of the disappearing motor-car. He breathed short, his face wore a placid satisfied expression, and at intervals he faintly murmured ‘Poop-poop!’ .

Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows 

Karli and I are currently in the final stages of tactical planning for a trip to Disneyland for her birthday next week.  As part of the process, Karli has been going through the various rides, attractions and activities available at the park and dividing them up based on the following criteria: things that she really wants to do; things we could do; and things which fall below the threshold of interest* for adults.

This list is not as self-evident as it would seem - there are some entries in the first category which many people might well consider to belong solidly in the third group.  However, Karli has a strongly nostalgic bias for our visit to Anaheim, and as such there are activities that she wants to do based on her youthful memories of them rather than their adult appeal. (Which in my mind is a completely valid approach -I'm a big fan of reliving childhood.)

One of the selections which came up as part of this process was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, which premiered at the park's opening in 1955 but received a facelift in 1983. When it was suggested as a preference, my first question was, "Does it go 'poop poop'?"

Karli lowered her iPad Mini and looked at me quizzically.

"Does it what?"

"Go 'poop poop'."

"Why in the world would it go poop poop?"

At this point, I went to the bookcase and pulled out my worn copy of The Wind in the Willows for a brief dissertation on the foundations of Toad's ill-fated obsession with motor cars, as seen in the opening quote.

Written by British author Kenneth Grahame in 1908, The Wind in the Willows is part of the great body of Edwardian children's literature. Beatrix Potter first introduces The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902, J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan debuts on stage in 1904, E. Nesbit's The Railway Children is published in 1906, and Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden in 1911.  (In the interests of Canadian content, Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery, makes its appearance before the public eye in 1908.)

The Wind in the Willows tells the story - or more accurately the stories - of a mismatched quartet of animal companions:  the Mole, a naive but earnest visitor to the world aboveground; his more experienced guide the Water Rat, who lives in a burrow by the river; the Badger, a gruff, respected and somewhat feared senior member of the woodland community, and the Toad, the egotistical and somewhat scatterbrained inheritor of Toad Hall.

The book is intensely episodic, ranging widely from the broad comedy of Toad's mishaps and adventures to the lyricism of the Water Rat's encounter with the Sea Rat, the unexpected mysticism of chapter entitled "The Piper At The Gates of Dawn" and the simple heartfelt nostalgia of the Mole's desire to see his old burrow once again when he catches its scent.

I first read The Wind in the Willows when I was about 20.  My then girlfriend owned a copy, and one evening when I was looking for something to read, my eye fell upon it in the bookcase as a recognized title. I started to read, and fell in love with it instantly.

Since then, The Wind in the Willows has been one of the great quiet foundations of my life. Reading the poetry of its text has calmed me when my spirit has been troubled, and comforted me after nightmares. In times of contentment, it has warmed me and satisfied me.  Like the Mole, I am "bewitched, entranced, fascinated" - taken out of my life and shown a different world through Grahame's descriptions of simple things: sunlight on water, a welcoming light in the darkness, good food and the company of good friends, and the whispering of the wind through the willows.

- Sid

* Or seat size.

A long way down in a galaxy far, far away.

 

 

As I've mentioned before, I'm involved in training for longshore workers at British Columbia's cargo terminals. Obviously safety is a large part of that training, and after almost seven years of working on content dealing with hazard recognition and management, I've been left with a heightened awareness of workplace safety.

This awareness sometimes pops up at unexpected moments.  After seeing Rogue One, I was talking with Glen, our Safety Systems Manager, and I asked if he'd seen the movie yet.  He said that he and his wife had seen it the previous week.

"Tell me something, Glen - did it bother you that it was so easy to fall off of things?"

"YES!!!  I told Tina that!  Why are there no railings or safety cages??"

It's an odd thing, but every Star Wars movie offers its characters an opportunity to easily fall a long, long way. It happens twice in A New Hope, once in The Empire Strikes Back, once in The Return of the Jedi, once in The Phantom Menace, I think once or twice in Attack of the Clones, at least twice in Revenge of the Sith, once or twice in The Force Awakens (depending on your standards) - and, of course, three times in Rogue One. How is it that there are no occupational health and safety people demanding proper safety standards in the Star Wars universe?

Forget lack of faith, Vader - personally, I find your lack of guard rails disturbing.

- Sid

P.S.  There are much, much better examples from Rogue One than the shots I started with, but until it hits Blu-ray and iTunes I'm stuck with the trailer and whatever I can find online.