"Surprise..."

 

Now you could study Shakespeare and be quite elite
And you can charm the critics and have nothin' to eat
Just slip on a banana peel
The world's at your feet
Make 'em laugh
Make 'em laugh
Make 'em laugh

Donald O'Connor, Singin' in the Rain.

I honestly though that I'd misheard the category when it was announced that Matt Damon had won Best Actor, Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy at the 2016 Golden Globes™ for his performance in The Martian - which went on to win Best Picture, Musical or Comedy.

Wait, what?

Although my girlfriend Karli shared my confusion at this unexpected turn of events, at least she was able to shed some light on how it could have happened.  Apparently if a nominee does not expect to win, they are allowed to compete in a different category, provided that they can convince the Hollywood Foreign Press Association that they qualify in said alternative category. 

The decision not to go head-to-head with Leonardo DiCaprio and The Revenant was probably a wise one, but in all honesty, I have to say that I cannot remember Matt Damon singing even a single note in The Martian.

- Sid

Geekmas 2015: Epilogue

With the belated arrival of my Secret Santa gift this week at work, I'm finally able to wrap up* the 2015 holiday season with a look at the geek-appropriate gifts that I received.

Topping the list of seasonal gifts would have to be the trio of custom art pieces created for me by Karli, my significant other.  Karli is a talented and creative artist in her spare time, and wanted to give me something unique for our first Christmas together.  Accordingly, she purchased a well-worn copy of a 50's young adult adventure-fantasy novel entitled The Sky Pirates, and used a few select pages as canvases for suitably whimsical illustrations. 

Karli also presented me with a 75th Anniversary edition of The Hobbit in hard cover.  It's a marvelous little treasure featuring Tolkien's illustrations, along with his original wraparound dustcover design, printed for the first time to match his artwork - originally the sun and the dragon were not reproduced in red due to printing costs.  All in all, a wonderful set of presents - thanks very much, my love!

There's been a cascade effect from my friend Colin's present: Fallout 4, the latest and greatest game from Bethesda.  In order to run this state-of-the-art open-world role-playing software, it was necessary to upgrade my copy of Windows 10 to a 64-bit version, and double the RAM on my PC platform.  Fortunately, I received almost exactly the right amount of Amazon** gift cards from Karli's relatives to cover the cost of the RAM, with the balance of the money going to one of the items from my Geekmas shopping list - Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice in trade paperback.

As I've said before, I do love a good time travel story, and this Christmas my friend Chris added to my collection with The Time Traveller's Almanac, a collection of classic time travel stories. Some of them are well know favourites, like Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder or Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore's Vintage Season, whereas others break new ground for me.

And my belated Secret Santa gift?  A TARDIS teapot - certainly a great addition to my collection of Doctor Who items, and it goes very nicely with the mug that Santa gave me in 2013, but it did make it obvious that Santa didn't see my request for episodes over merchandise.  Hmmm...perhaps next year I'll just send him a letter, Santa is probably still using the old school approach to gift requests.

- Sid

* No pun intended.

** To my mild surprise, the Amazon.ca third party vendor that I found offered a very competitive price on memory chips.  That being said, I'm hoping that I didn't order the wrong ones, there are an awful lot of variables in terms of speed and configuration - we'll know for sure when they arrive early next week.  I also gather that there may be some issues in terms of configuration, based on various comments on the process that I've read.  Wish me luck.

Resolution.

  

The new year is traditionally a time for resolutions, mandates for change - and hopefully improvement.  Generally I haven't bothered with this sort of thing - admittedly, I'm using the new year as an excuse to lose a little weight, but it's more based on just waiting out the dietary excesses of the holidays than anything else.

However, I have become increasingly aware of an area where I do need to improve, and I've decided to address this in one of my rare New Year's resolutions.

My problem?  I've become a lazy geek.

In years gone by I was a far more dedicated fan, although perhaps a less discerning one - it can take some time to learn how to separate the wheat from the chaff.  But for the last few years, I've been slowing down - not going out to movies as much, watching less TV,  buying fewer books, and perhaps not revisiting my existing collection to the degree that I should.

Admittedly, 2015 saw a major change in my life in the form of a new relationship and a wonderful live-in partner, and I don't think that all of my decisions to miss movies were bad ones - I'm not certain that I need to particularly regret missing Chappie, Jupiter Ascending, Tomorrowland, The Fantastic Four or Pixels.  (Particularly the last two.)  And I did manage to see Ex Machina, Fury Road, Age of Ultron, Terminator Genisys*, Ant-Man, Jurassic World, The Martian and The Force Awakens.

 

However, there's been a lot of well-received TV** programming from the last couple of years that I've skipped entirely, such as Daredevil***, Orphan Black***, Agents of Shield, Agent Carter***, Arrow, The Flash, The Man in the High Castle and Gotham - not to mention almost entirely avoiding Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. (In my defense for those last two, I'm fairly familiar with the source material, and I think that I felt that watching TV versions would just be redundant.)  In fact, if it weren't for Doctor Who and The Big Bang Theory, I really wouldn't be watching any TV at all.

Overall, I've been relying far too much on second-hand information and other people's reviews of things rather than forming my own opinions, and spending a little bit too much time looking at YouTube™ videos and funny cat pictures instead of reading.

So it's my hope that in 2016 I'll be able to catch up on some of the opportunities that I've let slide over the last couple of years - not to mention finding the time to report as appropriate via blog postings.  Wish me luck - and a happy New Year to all!  Once again, half way out of the dark...

- Sid

* Okay, on a flight to Japan rather than a theatre.

** For the sake of simplicity, we'll consider Netflix™ to be the moral equivalent of a television broadcasting network.

*** Okay, one episode.