There’s a Time and a Place for Skepticism
A Christian, a Jew, and an atheist are standing in line to be executed during the French Revolution.
The christian is first, and he lays down on the guillotine. Before the executioner pulls the lever he shouts, "My god will save me!". The lever is pulled, and the blade swooshes down, stopping just short of his neck. The executioner, believing a miracle of god has occurred, figures he can’t kill this man, as so sets him free.
The Jew lays down on the guillotine. Like the christian, he shouts, "My god will save me!". The lever is pulled, the blade falls, and once again it stops just short of his neck. The executioner, again, believes god is on this man’s side, and lets him go.
Finally, the atheist lays down on the guillotine. He examines the guillotine, finds a rock in the gears, and says to the executioner, "Well here’s your problem…"
The moral? There’s a time and a place for skepticism.
And one more, for good luck:
Q: What is the biggest problem for an atheist?
A: No one to talk to during an orgasm.
Admission of Guilt
Yes, for any that may glance at my Twitter feed or follow me on Facebook. It’s true. It’s all true. I am reading Twilight. I finished The Sword of Shannara Saturday and all day Sunday this book was lying around, mocking me. So, since my wife hadn’t started reading it yet, I picked it up.
I’ll post more later.
“The Sword of Shannara” by Terry Brooks
As a new reader of the Terry Brooks Shannara universe, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I picked up the book because I was looking for a new fantasy novel, and since it was an already well established series, I figured it would give me something to read. The first 200 to 300 pages were painful. The pacing of the story was so slow. Perhaps I’ve mentioned it before on a previous post, but Brooks would take 3 or 4 pages repeating the same information in describing a scene or setting, yet he would a character relate 5,000 years of knowledge in a paragraph.
Okay, so that little section above is my only real complaint about the entire novel. I’m not here to praise Mr. Brooks, but I am here to offer my account of the book I was told not to read.
Why was I told not to read it? In a nutshell, it goes like this:
“It’s a complete ripoff of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.”
That’s it. Message board users and fantasy fans proclaim this point over and over. Brooks admits that he was heavily influenced by Tolkien and other authors of the genre, but should that be a reason to not read any novel? There are no original ideas anymore, at least not that I’ve come across.
As far as ripping off LotR, I can only base my opinions on the movies, as I’ve never been able to sit down and read past the first few pages of the Tolkien trilogy. Story-wise, The Sword of Shannara is your typical epic fantasy. There is an innocent bystander thrust into a fantastical situation. A wise and powerful wizard, warrior, thief, elves, dwarves, proud majestic kingdoms, war that threatens the entire world, etc. Ripoff or not, I’d recommend giving The Sword of Shannara a try, if you can muddle through the first half of the book.
What makes Brooks’ world different and come alive and really capture my attention? Sadly, it wasn’t the story itself, it was the history of the world. The Shannara books have been out for some time now, so I’d dare say it is no spoiler to reveal that this fantasy world is actually our own Earth, many thousands of years in the future after a great nuclear holocaust. This, in and of itself, and the fact that Brooks has been creating a new series to link this with his previous series of fantasy books such as Running with the Devil to make one large universe is something I crave in literature. A huge universe of characters and a timeline in which their story is played out and passed along to new generations. Yet, over all, the stories are stand-alone but intertwined.
The book itself, involves a rag-tag band of folks on a mission to stop the Warlock Lord, a being of demonic power who ceased being human ages ago. He has been gaining power and building an army to storm the land and create a new War of the Races in hopes of conquering the divided lands. Lead by the mysterious druid, Allanon, the group embarks on a quest that will take them across their lands into the savage Northland. Their goal is to reach the ancient Sword of Shannara, a powerful talisman that can only be weilded by a direct decendant of Jerle Shannara, a high elf who originally battled the Warlock Lord long ago.
The ancestory belongs to a young man known as Shea Ohmsford, raised with his Man adoptive family. He knows nothing of his elven background, only what he’s grown up around in his small Southland village. He and his brother, Flick, are thrust suddenly into the quest when one of the Warlock Lords evil shadow creatures, a Skull Bearer, comes searching for Shea to kill him and end the threat. They flee their tiny home, and our adventure begins.
And while his may lead into your typical fantasy theme, I have to admit, I was thrown a curve ball or two that my little brain didn’t see coming. That is, in fact, what kept me going through the last hundred or so pages. The less I knew I had to read ‘til the end, the more I wanted to see how it was going to be wrapped up. I wasn’t really disappointed, either, but as I always say, I’m easily entertained!
The entire novel seems to take place over a matter of weeks to a month or so, the passage of time isn’t really delved in to, but the pacing picks up greatly halfway through the book. Knowing that these events take place on a future Earth kept my mind trying to find connections to locations, wondering how things got in one way or another, but I’m sure it is or will be all explained when the entire cycle is complete.
So, does The Sword of Shannara rip off LotR? Maybe. But I’m not a huge LotR novel fan, so I’m not bothered by that. Even if it did, the entire story is told in one self-contained novel, yet the Shannara universe covers many more novels and stories than that. I would recommend any fantasy fan pick it up and give it a read, it won’t be a waste of your time just for the lore alone you’ll be exposed to.
Black Friday Countdown ‘09
I remember back in the day when the Black Friday site use to be a big underground operation. Employees would slip camera phone shots of top secret ads and dish them out on message boards and websites of the after-Thanksgiving Day sales. Now, it’s a big celebration that some stores, like Best Buy are even supporting. Heck, they even have their own Twitter feed and Facebook page!
So, even though the “magic” is gone, don’t forget to check out this years The Black Friday site for fairly advanced looks at what you’ll be seeing in a week or so.
Warhammer Online: The Reckoning Goes Semi-Free
Mythic had gone a new route to increase interest in their MMO title, “Warhammer Online: The Reckoning.” It seems they’ve decided to take that 10-day free trial they were offering players and extended it to an unlimited time. There is a catch, however, as they’ve locked the free version at a Level 10 cap.
This seems much like a business model that the “Dungeons & Dragons: Eberron Unlimited” MMO has been having massive success with. I look for Warhammer to go free to play within a years time and add a companion store to sell wares and bonus content for paying players.
“Got Milk?” via Pseudopod.org
The audio horror podcast, Pseduopod, posted episode 160 a couple of weeks ago. I’m a little behind, so I’m just catching up. But, the episode, “Got Milk?” by John Alfred Taylor, is a slightly humerous and disturbing take on how one man takes advantage of a “not as rare as you might think,” medical issue.
Another good episode I recommend, and I don’t recommend that often ;)
Brave Soul? I Think Not
There has been something bothering me for a couple of months now. It isn’t a constant bother, but something that pops back into my mind from time to time. I was discussing it with a co-worker the other night, and it slipped back into my thoughts again just a few minutes ago. The topic was suicide.
Before I go further, I’d like to point out that I’m not downplaying anyone who has lost a loved one to the act of suicide, nor am I trying to purposely disgrace their memory. All I’m saying here is my personal opinion based upon a small conversation I had with a truck driver at my work.
Basically, the driver in question had lost a cousin. He wasn’t killed or maimed in any way, nor did he lose a struggle with any disease. He had simply “had enough” of the hurdles live was throwing at him and hung himself. I made a comment similar to the one I’m about to make below, and the driver became very defensive and said, “Why, I think anyone that commits suicide is a brave person. To know that you are going to end your own life, to take it into your hands like that, that’s bravery … that’s having the balls to do something other than stand around and do nothing!” I’m paraphrasing a bit, but that is the gist of what he said.
Now, it’s my turn.
Life is hard, no one has ever claimed otherwise. Even a multi-millionaire has to work for his/her money (in the beginning, anyways.) People lose loved ones, jobs, money. Live comes at you hard and fast, but it is how you view your situation and roll with it that determines your success in this physical world we live in. You can either dodge and adjust your strategy when you get knocked down, or you can have the crap beat out of you. It’s your choice. But to simply give up and say, “Meh, I can’t take it anymore,” and kill yourself … well, my friend, you are a coward. That’s taking the “easy” way out, not to mention the fact that, for our Christian friends, you are condemning yourself to damnation by taking your own life.
“Oh, my wife left me. Obama’s President. I got laid off. They are foreclosing on my house. I think I’ll blow my brains out, that’ll show ‘em!”
I don’t understand it. If you want to be brave, to live a good life and jump those hurdles, then, as another co-worker says, “it’s time to man-up,” not curl up in a ball and take that “easy” way out by shirking your responsibilities, family and friends.
Super Win Mode
If you want to breeze through World of Warcraft, then I’ve got a quick news flash for you. Level a hunter class. Doesn’t really matter what race, but once you get to level 10 and train your faithful pet, you’ll be a leveling fool!
My Orc hunter is level 12 already, with my little bit of play time, and if I could sit down for a whole day, uninterrupted, I would be probably be able to reach at least 22.
Other than a hunter, I’d say your next best bet to quickly zoom through the leveling process would be a death knight. Especially if you went with enough points to get you a full-time ghoul pet. Aside from the DK’s ability to generate health out of damage dealt and honor/experience kills, they’re pretty unstoppable. No down time on either a dk or a hunter, as your pet does most of your damage while you stand back and auto fire with a bow/gun for the most part.
If you want to get into WoW, or just give it a try, go for the easy Win. Of course, dk’s are only available once you get a character up to level 55, but if you level a hunter, it’ll still fly by.
It Was So Fun, I’m Doing It Again
I enjoyed playing a hunter-class so much, that I’ve decided to roll another. There is a slight change, though. My main character is a Draenei hunter, level 80 on the Stormrage server and in the guild Clockwork. Look me up sometime, it’s cool. This particular server has been dedicated to the Alliance.
Another server, however, is what I refer to as my Horde server. I’ve got a 32 warlock (which inspired me to create my Human warlock on the Alliance side that is now up to level 72), and of course a nice Troll death knight. My hunter, this time around, though, is a nice rugged Orc male. He’s rough and tumble, doesn’t get along with humanoids very well, but has a soft spot for animals, hence his career as a hunter.
So, we’ll see how this goes. I’m actually enjoying leveling a hunter, yet again. Maybe it just requires some time off to experience new again. Anyways, I haven’t forgotten my Alliance toons, nor my plan to level the warlock to level 80. But, while I am working on this it is building up some nice rested xp on my other toons.
Stay tuned, true believers.
Clickity-clack
I have the urge to do a little writing, but my pen can’t keep up with my brain. As such, I’m considering hi-jacking my wife’s netbook and taking it to work with me. I can do a little work during my lunch break instead of stuffing my face with food. Sounds like a plan, my friends! I coulda just posted this to a twitter comment, but I needed an update for today anyways <wink,wink, nudge,nudge>
My Flick'r Stream
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