ImJasonH.com

Stranger in a Strange Land

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:17:31 -0400

I finished Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land today, as part of my “Jason Needs to Read More Classic Sci-Fi if He’s Going to Have Nerd Friends” initiative.

I’ve never read Dune, or Neuromancer, or Snow Crash, or any Asimov, or almost any Philip K. Dick, and I read Ender’s Game for the first time about a year ago. If you’d like to recommend me sci-fi books to read, please do.

Let me diverge for a moment. I never cease to be amazed at the breadth of things I haven’t read. I read very slowly, and have almost never in my life read just for the fun of it. The latter may be caused by the former. That’s not to say that I don’t find reading to be fun, just that in most cases I find more readily fun things to do than read.

But since I’ve recently moved to a place that, for the first time since moving to New York, comes with a subway commute to work, I now find myself with plenty of time in which there’s nothing better to do than read.

So I read Stranger in a Strange Land, and I liked it, for the most part. There were things I didn’t like.

Like when I read something, I like to know where it’s heading. As in, within the first third of a book, I like to know what the point of the book is, what the conflict is and what I’m reading to find out.

If it’s a murder mystery, am I trying to figure out who killed the butler?

If it’s a war novel, am I reading to see if the courageous Yanks will defeat those nefarious Krauts?

If it’s a novel about high society, am I supposed to learn how to tie a cravat?

Stranger in a Strange Land didn’t get to the point of the book until the last third or so. The book cover made it look like it was going to be about a Martian named Smith. Then it looked like it was going to be a mystery about the kidnapping of Ben Caxton.

Then Jill got to Jubal’s house and nobody really cared what happened to Ben. Then it looked like it was going to be about making sure the Martian didn’t get screwed over by the evil nasty government. Then the government was pretty okay after all, and everyone was happy with it.

Then it became a Martian-out-of-water tale about religion and questioning social norms.

Which I’m fine with — I liked the final point of the story. I just didn’t get why we had to go into so much detail about Ben when he didn’t play a big part at all for the rest of the story. Or why we were led to care about General Secretary Douglas at all when he wasn’t mentioned but once after he was disposed of.

The book was long, and I’m a slow reader, with precious little time to read. Please, let’s just get to the point already. (I’m sure you’re saying the same thing about this post…)

It also got pretty preachy sometimes, which might be true of a lot of science fiction. I understand that the goal of science fiction is to magnify our current culture’s shortcomings and either explain how things will reform and get better, or decay even more. I agreed with most of what the book was saying. But that doesn’t make it any less preachy.

Preachiness is more about how it’s framed within the novel, how the point is explained and stated. When a character’s dialogue goes on uninterrupted for three or more pages, it’s preachy. The author might as well just remove all the quotation marks and print it as a pamphlet.

Make it a conversation, break it up with some action, be a novelist. I really hate when I feel like I’m reading someone’s prepared speech, even more than I hate listening to someone’s prepared speech.

Those were pretty much my only qualms with it though, just Heinlein’s writing style I guess. Otherwise it was really good.

I promise I liked it.

Photo

Sat, 30 May 2009 01:47:49 -0400

Loud N’ Clear helps old people: win at bingo play euchre enjoy church eavesdrop watch...

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:41:00 -0400

Loud N’ Clear helps old people:

win at bingo
play euchre
enjoy church
eavesdrop
watch TV
some other stuff
eavesdrop
look like a douche
hunt animals
win at bingo

This is easily the most badass person in existence. Easily.

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:26:07 -0400

This is easily the most badass person in existence. Easily.

Donald in Mathmagic Land

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:45:00 -0500

I loved this video as a kid. I even bought a VHS copy on eBay at some point (then lost it). Thankfully good old YouTube has kept this from being entirely inaccessible.

edit: ~~Duck~~

NFL Mascots: For the Birds

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:32:11 -0500

Fun Fact: Three of the final four teams in the NFL playoffs have bird mascots (Cardinals, Eagles and Ravens), and four of the NFL’s five bird teams made it to the playoffs this season. This is, as far as I can tell, pretty unusual.

So, since I was really bored today, I decided to figure out what kinds of mascots performed the best this past season. Of course, my suspicions were on target, birds were the best with a final regular season record of 44-35-1, an average winning percentage of .556.

The next best category, a close second, was the “Other” category — teams whose mascots didn’t fit into any other category. Their overall record was 53-43, a winning percentage of .552. Pretty much all of this success came from the Titans and Giants, each conference’s number one seed going into the playoffs (both of whom were eliminated this weekend).

On the other side of the coin, teams with cat mascots did incredibly badly this season, with a record of 21-42-1, a winning percentage of .335. The most notable of these teams was the Detroit Lions, who made NFL history with the league’s first 0-16 season.

Team data was copied from ESPN.com and compiled in this spreadsheet.

Pugapalooza

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:50:07 -0500

Lauren and I went to a pug owners meet-up this afternoon with my co-worker Kai and her partner Sarah (who own a pug). It was…the absolute cutest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. Imagine if you will a room filled with 30+ adorable pugs, running around, barking, playing, snoring and peeing all over the place. Yeah, it’s like that.

Commence crappy camera phone YouTube video!

If you ever get invited to a pug meet-up, I suggest you take them up on it.

"If you, me, and a collection of our British friends who have never played American football got..."

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:05:13 -0500

“If you, me, and a collection of our British friends who have never played American football got together, we could, and almost certainly would, have ended the NFL season with the same record as a professional team. That is inspiring.”

- Andy Zaltzman, from the latest episode of The Bugle, regarding the Detroit Lions

Fun Fact: I flew 25,000+ miles this year

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:32:38 -0500

Source

Or just over the circumference of the Earth. This due in part to a wonderful trip to Iceland and Wales, two work trips to California and more trips back and forth from Ohio than I care to count.

Christmas a month early

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:19:13 -0500

I got my copy of the Protomen’s new single today in the mail, and I gotta say, it’s getting me pretty excited for their new album, coming out next year.

In case you’ve never heard of the Protomen, they’re a group of Tennessean musicians who wrote and perform a Mega Man rock opera, and if those words all side by side like that doesn’t get your blood warm, then I doubt anything will. Their first album was, and is, one of my favorites of all time, and the thought of more from them is getting me pretty excited.

Way back when, when I ran my little music blog, I had the pleasure of helping introduce them to the world, and when they came through Columbus (at an anime convention of all things) they invited me backstage afterward, there to receive a lesson in both bourbon drinking* and hotel vandalism** from what I can only assume were experts in both fields.

Aw, memories.

The Protomen - Father of Death

The Protomen - No Easy Way Out (from the soundtrack for Rocky IV)

_{* Protip: always drink from the side of your mouth

** Protip: always cover it with a painting}

FYI, FBI...

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:15:19 -0500

Donovan: so I'm probably going to have to go with plan B
Donovan: (you may be arrested for threatening arson, just a little heads up there)
Donovan: woops
Donovan: wrong window
Donovan has left the conversation
Donovan has disconnected

Update: Tumblr's not a bowl of roses either

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:52:23 -0500

Bulk deleting posts is not possible in Tumbler (yet!), and I just switched over my Feedburner feed to this, so surprise! everyone gets to re-live all those old shares and tweets.

Isn’t the internet just grand…

PSA: Beware the Divel

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:35:11 -0500

So on the way to and from work I walk down 23rd Street across town, and I keep seeing a bunch of these crazy homemade ranting flyers all over the place. I’ve seen so many of them I finally decided to take some pictures and share them, because they seem pretty serious, and helpful for all yous about-to-become-bats out there…

Flickr Set

Mic check, one two one two...

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:25:00 -0500

What the hell is this nonsense, words written by me being displayed somewhere on the internets for public consumption? This hasn’t been done in…months! There hasn’t even been an ImJasonH.com since May.

I mean, I’m not saying there will necessarily be much of an ImJasonH.com from this point on, but at least there’s something here, right?

Also, this is going to be on Tumblr from now on (until I decide to change). Blogger was fun, but holy damn it was absolutely impossible to set up custom domains on that nonsense. So here I am, settling for second best.

So I guess you can look forward to another three or four posts in the next couple weeks, then radio silence, then an unresponsive domain in a couple months. ‘Cause that’s how I roll, bitches.

ImJasonH: @fitzymj Yeah but I don’t have to drive the train. Also, bootleg DVDs.

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 21:32:29 -0400

ImJasonH: @fitzymj Yeah but I don’t have to drive the train. Also, bootleg DVDs.

ImJasonH: 3.09 a gallon?! I miss you, MTA…

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:48:05 -0400

ImJasonH: 3.09 a gallon?! I miss you, MTA…

ImJasonH: Decemberists tour cancelled?! NOOOO!!!

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 22:17:30 -0400

ImJasonH: Decemberists tour cancelled?! NOOOO!!!

Mark Twain And An Angel Named Satan

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:42:37 -0400

Released in 1985, The Adventures of Mark Twain is the creation of Will Vinton, best known for The California Raisins. The movie is a series of vignettes based on Twain’s stories and his life. The overarching plot of the film is that Twain, disgusted with people and society, boards a riverboat-airship in order to collide with Haley’s Comet and end his own life. He is joined on his terminal adventure by Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and Becky Thatcher, who are attempting to convince Twain that life is worth living.

This particular vignette is based on Twain’s short story The Mysterious Stranger, which he rewrote several times as The Chronicles of Young Satan, Schoolhouse Hill, and No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger and which remained unpublished until after his death. Schoolhouse Hill is the only one that features Tom and Huck but all prominently feature the character of Satan, or No. 44.

Satan does our three diminutive counselors no favors, as it pontificates on the greed and pettiness of man’s existence while putting on a lilliputian play on its floating island in the middle of an expansive sea of nothing. The mood is appropriately dark and malevolent -despite Satan’s assurance that it can “do no wrong, for I do not know what it is”- and the pacing of Satan’s simmering disgust is perfect. The final frames of its monologue, as its mask becomes a glint in Twain’s eye, are quite haunting. Some truly superb claymation.

very creepy, disturbing children’s cartoon, banned from TV [Youtube]

Brohemian Rhapsody

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 04:09:50 -0400

(via Jason H’s shared items in Google Reader)

Rumormonger: Microsoft to make big changes at Facebook

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:50:39 -0400

Microsoft is rumored to have completed a deal to acquire a stake in Facebook and expand its current advertising deal. And Facebook Director or Brandee Barker even confirmed the news, if inadvertently. And now, we’re already hearing rumors of how exactly Microsoft plans to stir things up on the social network’s website.

Here’s what we’ve gathered so far:

Facebook will split into two brands, MSNFB.com and Facebook Live.
Facebook Friends Finder Enterprise Edition 2.11
Install too many apps, and you get a blue screen of death instead of zombies.
Outlook to add integrated “poke” feature by 2011.
No more overnight updates to Facebook. New plan: Wait until Apple launches a social network, then upgrade.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer eats Mark Zuckerberg’s brains.
Heard anything else? Microsoft and Facebook welcome your crowdsourced feature ideas in the comments.

(via Jason H’s shared items in Google Reader)