Diary of a Network Geek

It may be obvious by now, but I’m not a graphic designer.

Still, I appreciate the work. I mean, I understand the effort and appreciate the people who put in the work to make good design. And, I have to admit that design, good and bad, fascinates me.
So, to make amends for my various bad design, I offer the few good designers who might stumble across my site some nice bits.

I don’t know about full-time, professional designers, but I need a good bit of inspiration now and again. I often get photography and graphic design magazines just to stare at and get ideas. But, they get very proud of those magazines and charge dearly for them, so, in this new, tighter economy, what are we to do? Well, why not look at free, on-line design magazines! How about 42 Free Online Magazines for Designers?
Need more inspiration? Well, personally, I’m obsessed with logos, so I found the Logo Designer Blog endlessly entertaining.

Of course, when we’re creating for the web, content, as they say, is king. In this case, that means words. Lots and lots of words. In marketing school they called those words “copy” and the process of churning them out was “copywriting”. It’s an art, too, in its way. An art that all too many graphically creative people don’t seem to get, especially on the web. At least, I’ve seen a lot of sites that sure could use work on their words. Well, GrokDotCom has help for them at the GrokDotCom Ultimate Copywriting Cheat Sheet. Even if you think you’re very good at this, this page is worth a look. Trust me.

So, there you go.
Enjoy.
Now go make something.

StarTrek

Originally uploaded by Network Geek

Well, yeah, of course, I saw Star Trek this weekend.

Okay, first of all, if you’re an old-school, Trek purist, you will hate this movie. But, if you like fun, watchable, well-acted, well-directed science-fiction movies, and can accept that this movie isn’t the series and steps outside the established television canon, then you might just enjoy this film. Seriously, if you can set aside your ideas about what this movie should be because it’s a “Star Trek” movie, you’ll enjoy it a whole lot more. Personally, I liked the movie just fine.

So, this is a new origin. This movie throws out the old Trek history and writes it anew for a whole new audience. In fact, director and producer J. J. Abrams has basically said that this movie is for a new generation of potential Star Trek fans, and not really for the “old guard” at all. Now, the hard-core Trek nerds are all irritated by that, but, well, that’s tough. This movie is just what the franchise needed; a total reboot. Well, actually, it’s not a total reboot, since Leonard Nimoy does, in fact, show up as an old Spock, but, mostly, this is a fresh start. Obviously, box office receipts will determine if an sequels are made, but, from what I’ve seen so far, I can’t imagine that this will be the last we see of the Enterprise.

So, here’s where potential spoilers start. If you don’t want me to accidentally reveal anything really integral to the plot, stop reading now and skip down to the last paragraph for my final review summary.
Right, now that the pansies are all gone, here’s the dirt.
This movie breaks canon in a number of ways. For one, all the major characters get brought together in this first mission. And, when I mean all the major characters, I mean not just Kirk and Bones and Spock, but also Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, Chekhov, Nurse Chapel, and even Captain Pike. So, yeah, that’s totally not how the series went at all, but, you know what? It was done pretty well. I mean, I bought the whole thing. It worked. And, we got to see a little history for the two really big characters, Spock and Kirk. Again, different than the series, but very good. In many ways, it was more believable, to be honest, more adult in a way that I would hope to see in the movies.

In the series, Kirk was always portrayed as a bit of a lothario, but in the movie, we actually see him hitting on women. We get to meet Bones as he’s running away from his ex-wife and debts, even though he’s terrified of space. We get to see Spock as a troubled youngster and a stiff-necked Starfleet Academy instructor. In fact, he’s the one who programmed the infamous Kobyashi Maru scenario which no one was supposed to be able to beat, and just how Jim Kirk beat it. In fact, once they work through that little bit, it forms the basis of their friendship. It’s all done in such a way that the narrative flows well and everything makes sense, but in a cinematic way which is really better, I think, than the old series. And, yes, I did love the original Star Trek series, so if you’re holding on to that as “better” because it was the original, get over it.

Now, I’ll bet you’re wondering how Nimoy’s Spock gets worked into the movie, right? If you’re a real fan of the series, I’m sure you’ve already worked it out. Time Travel! And, yes, there is at least a brief discussion of the time travel paradox that always seems to get set up when that happens. Solved, as always, with that handy theoretical construct the alternate time-line, or parallel universe. So, what’s been set up here is a brand new Star Trek universe with the great characters that Gene Roddenberry created, but the possibility of new adventures done in surprising ways. Yay! Finally, a reboot of a classic setting done with something approaching brilliance! And, it’s all internally consistent with the original universe.

Now, I know this weekend was big for this film, but it remains to be seen how the fans will embrace it. Personally, I think if they’re fools if they don’t get behind this film. The series has been played out and run into the ground. The Star Trek franchise absolutely needs to have a complete reset like this and if we really want to see new movies, we need to get the old guard out to see this movie and enjoy it. Or, maybe not. Maybe the new fans will drive this film and all the great new Star Trek films it will produce. I hope so.

So, in short, I think the new Star Trek is a great movie. I would totally be willing to see this again, which, again, is good because I very well may be going with friends who couldn’t go when I saw it Friday. Also, I completely, whole-heartedly recommend this film to people who loved the old series and people who weren’t big fans, but love good science-fiction films.
It’s a great movie and I think everyone should get out and see it at least once, if not twice.

I find this story both beautiful and a little uncomfortable.

Imagine being a double amputee and stuck in a wheelchair since childhood. Imagine all the questions that you’d learned to deflect, perhaps with a little sarcasm, or, perhaps, with gentle humor. Well, one such person who told a kid who asked why she didn’t have all her legs that she was a former mermaid has gotten to realize a dream. The special effects wizards behind the Lord of the Rings movies have made her a mermaid suit, that works.

On the one hand, it’s cool that these guys are helping her out and that she’s not letting her disability keep her down.  On the other hand, I wonder how long it will be until they have a product and are marketing it to people who want to turn themselves into mer-people.

So, last week I finished You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Bring Your Laptop To A Coffee Shop by John Scalzi.

I’ve been a frustrated writer since I can remember.
I’ve read more books on writing than most people even realize have been published! But, this book was different. Most writing books focus on the techniques of writing, dispensing all sorts of marginally useful advice, but Scalzi has some different advice for hopeful writers. He talks mainly about the nitty gritty that the other books leave out. For one thing, he talks about giving up the idea that one should only write “art” pieces. He talks about approaching writing like any other job. It makes sense, really, when you think about it. I mean, if you want to make a living at writing, then you have to write regularly, just like you’d work at any other job. You work regularly to get paid regularly.

Mostly, the advice is hard-nosed and drawn from his own years as a full-time, professional writer. Also, the sections are drawn from his blog, the Whatever and many are answers to questions from readers of that blog. Granted, he’s edited many of the original blog entries for the book, but I honestly don’t care that it’s mostly duplicated material I could get from the web. I find reading it from a book, an actual, bound book, far easier than trying to chase it all down on his blog. It was well worth the price.

I can’t recommend this book to most of my readers, but if you’re an aspiring writer and are tired of reading the same well-worn advice about how to write, You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Bring Your Laptop To A Coffee Shop may be just the book you’ve been looking for. It won’t tell you much about how to write, but it will give you invaluable advice about the writing life and how to make a living at it.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"Never tell your girlfriend that her diet's not working."

I made my first, primitive blog entry here nine years ago today.

Back then, I coded every page by hand, often in a text editor and uploaded the pages. That was back before blogging was cool and everyone was doing it, too, so there just wasn’t any blogging software to speak of. Everyone who had a blog, which is short for “web log”, wrote their posts and pages by hand. Of course, I was mostly out of work back then, too, so I had lots of time to code it all up and link everything by hand. Thank God that all changed! First MovableType and then WordPress. Who knows what else will be coming next?

Of course, a lot has changed in my non-digital life, too. Married then divorced again. Changed jobs four times. Moved once, after buying a house. Survived cancer.
Sometimes, looking back on it all, it sure does seem like a lot happening in a short amount of time. It’s crazy, crazy stuff.

Anyway, I noticed that the date was coming not too long ago and I thought I’d point it out.

XMenOrigins-Wolverine

Originally uploaded by Network Geek

Right, so I saw Wolverine Friday night.

It was good, and I’m totally willing to see it again, which is good because I suspect that I will be, but, honestly, it wasn’t great. I mean, it was no Dark Knight or Iron Man, but it was still good.
Here’s the thing, to a fan, there’s nothing new here. Really, what they did was sort of take all the various alternate histories of Wolverine that we’ve seen in the comic books over the years and sort of munge them all into one. Well, except for leaving out all the time he spent in Japan. But, all the origin history, how he came to be alive, how he discovered his mutant powers, his association with the military and how he lost his memory are all in there. Like I said, though, no real mystery to any real fan of the comic books, though.

So, the movie starts with him as a sickly kid in a wealthy family, with a father who, it turns out, isn’t quite his father and a half-brother, who is the mutant Sabretooth. Then, we drift through a montage of history following the two brothers through various wars starting with about the American Civil War and ending up in Viet Nam, which is where the meat of the movie really starts.
Wolverine and his brother hook up with a bunch of U.S. government run mutant “special forces” who are little more than the assassin mercenaries of General William Stryker, who later is a baddie in the X-Men movies. This is just earlier in the timeline. Naturally, Wolverine gets fed up and bails out, retiring to the Canadian wilderness as a lumberjack with a girlfriend. After Sabretooth starts hunting down the old team, he kills the girlfriend to get Wolverine back in the game, so to speak. Also, this is what motivates him to volunteer to get the adamantium skeleton that he’s famous for having.
So, yeah, no point in telling the whole story. Either you’re a fan and know it already or I’d be spoiling the movie, so, might as well just let it go. Suffice it to say that the plot is a typical action movie filled with betrayal and comic book surprises.

The one real downside to the movie is the ending, which was pretty weak. It seemed like it was mainly a setup for a sequel or a spin-off or both. Personally, I’m betting on both based on the weekend’s box office returns for this one. These folks made some money. And, rightly so, since Wolverine is one of the most popular Marvel comic characters in a very popular franchise. I mean, really, this has been one of the most anticipated films of the past couple years. Right up there with Star Trek opening Friday.

So, all in all, a pretty good film. Not great, but good enough to pay full price. And, when a friend of mine wants to finally go see this after fulfilling some family obligations, I’ll be pleased to see it again and look for details I missed the first time.
Worth seeing, for sure, but not twice for most people. And watch for the next one or the spin-off!

Do you have more than one website or blog you need to watch?

I have several websites and blogs and, honestly, sometimes, I don’t visit them all in a given week. And, while my webhosting provider is amazingly good and stable, especially at the reasonable rates they charge, sometimes, one or more of my sites go down without warning. So, what’s a bottom-feeding web entrepreneur like me to do? Enter Are My Sites Up! This website will let you monitor your sites and get an e-mail or SMS message to your phone if any go down. And, as usual when I recommend something, it’s free. They may charge eventually, but right now, it’s free.

Enjoy!