If at first.

 

A couple of New Years' back, I confessed to having been a lazy geek, and resolved to do better.  To be truthful, as with many New Year's resolutions, results have been mixed, and I've decided that it's time to formulate a more specific plan to address my shortcomings in the area of geekness.

To be fair, it's not as bad as I make it sound.  I've certainly managed to keep up with the major genre motion picture releases*, and even attended a couple of the less successful films, such as Ghost in the Shell and Blade Runner 2049, not to mention outright mistakes like Alien: Covenant.

However, I feel that a more dedicated geek would have taken a look at The Dark Tower, War for the Planet of the Apes, or Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets**, and I agree with my girlfriend Karli*** that not seeing Hidden Figures was a mistake on my part - which I plan to address now that it's on Netflix™.

(Just for the record, I have no regrets about skipping The Great Wall or The Mummy, but I'm open to arguments to the contrary.)

 

Sadly, my record for television series is abysmal.  Of course I watched Doctor Who, and both Star Trek:  Discovery and Stranger Things 2 made the viewing list, but there have been a lot of things like The Orville, Legion, The Dark, The Handmaid's Tale, the whole Daredevil / Jessica Jones / Luke Cage / Iron Fist / Defenders thread, and a host of other programs that probably deserved some attention.

I've also developed a significant reading backlog.  Now, before you panic, don't worry:  I still read as much as ever, but it generally involves ebooks on my iPhone.  But I've never stopped buying  books - real books, paper books - and as a result, I've got a substantial stack in the study at home.

So, part of this year's resolution is to get rid of that particular pile of paper, although, to be honest, pending the space for another bookshelf, those books will just go into the stacks of books that I have read.  Still, it's the thought that counts.

Having laid out the problem, what's the solution?  For the books, my plan is to read at least one paper book every week.  Some of that will replace iPhone reading on the bus, and some of it will replace time spent looking at internet trivia on my iPad before going to sleep - a price I shall gladly pay, to quote the Solomon Kane movie.

It's a bit more challenging to schedule TV time.  When she agreed to move in with me,  Karli*** warned me that she watches a lot of television, and over time we've developed a system where we spend time together after work, then take a little time on our own where she watches television in the living room and I retire to the spare bedroom to play games, surf the Net, and, of course, work on blog postings.

However, she also sometimes visits her friend John on Sunday nights (ironically, to watch either Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead, both of which I should probably be watching) or spends time at her sister Stefanie's place (for The Bachelor/ette, which, to be clear, I feel absolutely no desire to watch), and going forward I'm going to schedule TV viewing during those time slots.

And that's the plan!  Wish me luck - I think we're all too aware of how quickly the spirit of a New Year's resolution collapses under the weight of everyday life.  Hopefully this will be easier to stick to than those damn gym visits.

  - Sid

* Interestingly, if you search Google™ for "2017 movie releases", Thor: Ragnarok is listed as a comedy.

** I will be taking care of that last one in the near future, regardless of the less than glowing reviews of the film.  I actually own Ambassador of the Shadows,  the Valerian and Laureline graphic novel by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières that provided part of the basis for the film, and the trailers intrigued me in terms of how Mézières' artwork was translated to the big screen.

*** As previously, my gorgeous girlfriend Karli, to be accurate.

Let's all just get along, okay?

"Who's the new guy?"

- Sid

P.S. If anyone from Funko™ reads this, it is challenging to get the laser rifle to stay in the Lone Wanderer's hand. CHALLENGING.

Indigo Fail II: Close but no cigar.

She remembered, as every sensible person does, that you should never never shut yourself up in a wardrobe.

 C.S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

Hello again, Indigo.  So I thought to myself, "Wait, maybe they have all of those Narnia books for sale online.  That would be cool, because really, I did like the cover art."

Unfortunately not, as it turns out, but I feel I should point out that Pauline Baynes illustrated the Narnia books rather than wrote them, although I'm sure she'd appreciate the vote of confidence if she were still alive.

I'm a bit sad that no one at Indigo has noticed that this is wrong. It's understandable to me that the people entering data into the catalogue don't necessarily need to know anything about literature, but surely there must be some kind of approval process in place - hopefully involving someone who is paying attention and cares about this sort of thing.

Or not.

- Sid