More of a movie\book\TV-related post and less gamey.

Haven’t been going to see movies much lately, but I did catch Shaun of the Dead last night. I’ve heard it described as Best Comedy of the Year, Best Zombie Movie Ever, the Second Coming of the Zombie Christ, etc. While it was fairly good it was none of these things. It started out like a boring, slow British comedy (or what passes for comedy there), then escalated into some of the best horror comedy I’ve seen since Dead Alive, then turns into a pretty common zombie horror flick. Overall it was pretty uneven, but enjoyable during the comedy bits.

Been reading again, except sci-fi this time instead of non-fiction. A friend of mine recommended a book from Alfred Bester called The Demolished Man. The back of the book reads like this:

In a world in which the police have telepathic powers, how do you get away with murder?

Ben Reich heads a huge 24th century business empire, spanning the solar system. He is anso an obsessed, driven man determined to murder a rival. To avoid capture, in a society where murderers can be detected even before they commit their crime, is the greatest challenge of his life.

The book is at least twice as cool as the premise. I burned through it in an afternoon and loved it. Then I picked up The Stars My Destination, another book by Bester, and it’s proving to be great as well. It’s quickly described here: “Education: None. Skills: None. Merits: None. Recommendations: None.” So reads Gully Foyle’s Merchant Marine card. But Gully has managed to survive for 170 days in the airless purgatory of deep space and to escape to Terra with a murderous grudge and a secret that could change the course of history.

Not as compelling a description, but the beauty is in the details. It’s basically a sci-fi payback story, where the main character is an utter bastard with no mercy or morals. I love main characters like that. The movie Payback has that going for it, and because of it, it’s one of my favorite movies. :) I find it compelling when characters DON’T undergo dramatic personality shifts or changes for the better when spurred on by some moral crisis. Mel Gibson’s character is an absolute bastard, he has a mission and he’ll piss off, maim or kill everyone that gets in his way to complete it. He’s just got such a devious, funny and consistent character that I can’t help but admire him.

I’ve also been watching TV a bit lately, which is rare for me because I don’t really like TV. It’s only redeemed to me through shows like The Apprentice and America’s Next Top Model. During commercials, I’ve seen advertisements for a new show called Kevin Hill. The premise is that a single, successful young professional unwittingly adopts his newly deceased cousin’s daughter. I look at that and I imagine myself in the same situation, and I’m amused at what a poor subject I’d be for a TV show.

See, the guy’s cousin died in some accident and left his daughter to him in his will, and a big deal is made of all the life-fucking-upping that the kid does to him and his career, exactly like in every other TV show and movie with the same premise. In that same situation, I’d turn down adopting the kid and put it in an orphanage, and complain at what an inconsiderate bastard my cousin was for rudely attempting to destroy my life with an unwanted responsibility. :)

I guess I’m just violently opposed to having children this early. I’m just starting to kick ass in my career and really get where I want and do what I want to do, and kids, for all their benefits, are still an immense drain on energy, emotion, time and money. Having a kid is the worst thing I can imagine happening to me besides going blind, sustaining crippling brain damage or losing my hands. At least there’s a cool story associated with the other afflictions.

If you’re blind, or have no hands, or have crippling brain damage, you could very easily have some totally bad-ass story behind it. Or if you lost your hands, something interesting HAD to have happened there. Or even brain damage. But… if you have a kid… well, she missed her pill that one day. See my point? Fuck kids. :)

That’s all for now.