Author: admin

Trisha’s Take: The Samsung Chromebook review

Samsung Chromebook Series 5

Review DotReview Dot
Manufactured by Samsung
Operating System by Google

While you’re reading this, you are probably sitting at your computer desk, a half-finished drink at your side. Or maybe you’re in a car or on a bus or another wheeled vehicle, your smartphone or your tablet in one hand. And you’d think that was pretty amazing, right? Imagine how I feel as I type this, approximately 37,000 feet in the air somewhere over Wayne, South Dakota.

I’m able to perform what Stephen King called one of the best magic tricks in the world thanks to Virgin America and their partnership with Google and Gogo, wherein if you check out a Chromebook at a select airport and are going to another participating airport, you can use their in-flight wireless Internet for free while you test-drive their product. It’s an ingenious bit of marketing, mostly because everyone likes free Internet, right?

Hit the website above to look at the technical specs or even this Engadget review if you want to get down to the nitty gritty. What I’d like to talk about is how this mini-laptop or maxi-netbook feels to use on a plane and whether or not it’s worth it.

First off, I’m lucky to be sitting near the window with someone I know next to me because the only way I’m able to type as fast as I normally do without jamming my seatmate in the elbow is by putting the ‘book on one side of the fold-down tray. However this did also mean that my seatmate had to type on his full-sized laptop with his elbow in the air. I’m also having a problem with the size of the text on the screen in the Chrome browser. Even after I just changed the settings, only one of the tabs I had open had the font at a readable size; the rest were at their default. Changing the Search button into a Capslock button takes some fooling around with the settings, but its doable; meanwhile, there is no Delete or Home key.

We were asked not to look at streaming video on the flight, so I didn’t get a chance to test out how it felt watching a movie or some YouTube clips. However, I’m pleased to note that even with some pausing to eat a bit, I still have about 71% of a battery left and there’s perhaps an hour or two left in my flight to New York City.

The Bottom Line: If I had $500 to spend and I wanted something that was easy to carry around for casual browsing and long plane trips or subway trips, would I get a Chromebook? Probably not; having also played with a first-generation iPad while waiting for this very flight, I think I liked how easy it was to use and change its readability settings than this ‘book. But I’m sure that there’s someone else out there who’ll appreciate this machine.

Geekly Speaking About… “Happy Birthday to Us!”

Late birthday cake is better than no birthday cake at all!

It’s the end of another calendar year, and I thought it was the perfect opportunity for me to start working on the podcasts again, starting with some episodes that slipped through the cracks. This was recorded towards the end of May and marked the anniversary of this site being up; hence, the name of the episode.

There’s not much more I can say about this, so let’s get to the show notes, hmm?

  • To start, I think this episode was recorded on Jill’s phone and I have to say the audio quality isn’t that bad. It’s not the best, but it’s not terrible, either.
  • Our birthday contest went very well, with Toronto, Canada writer D.C. McMillen winning the grand prize. You can read McMillen’s other works here, and do some stalking via Twitter as well.
  • Sadly, I haven’t gotten back onto the writing horse on any of the projects I have on the back burner; however, I am very proud of the flashback chapter I contributed to the “Dengler & Butts” fanfic which by itself raised $100 and as part of the entire story raised $1,000 for the Child’s Play Charity during the Desert Bus for Hope Internet telethon. (‘Netathon? Intelethon? We really need a better descriptor for what DBFH is.)
    Midnight in Paris really is that amazing; just re-read my review if you need some convincing. I’m not sure if Owen Wilson will be nominated for an Oscar on the basis of his acting work in it, but I’d give a statue to Kathy Bates for her supporting role as Gertrude Stein. The fruit-named movie that Jill was thinking about was Bananas.
  • How is it that the Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype only became codified in 2008?
  • If you’ve never seen The Room and would like to attend a screening, check out this list.
  • Now that John Rogers is back to updating his blog with posts about “Leverage,” I need to finally sit down and watch the season four episodes I missed.
  • According to this article from May 12, Stephanie Krikorian wrote in The Wall Street Journal that an executive producer revealed that many of the voters for American Idol are girls, but also their mothers, too. So I’m calling that a partial win for my argument.
  • It was the blind auditions like Beverly McClellan’s which made me love watching “The Voice” at first. (I lost interest right around the time that my boyfriend and I finally started moving in together.) The fact that both Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera wanted to work with her reaches out and touches that part of me which feels really strongly that truly talented people will always win out over what is superficially attractive. Call it the egalitarian socialist in me.
  • Because YouTube/Google is really lock-stepped with NBC’s copyright lawyers, here’s the Nico Nico version of the Voice battle between Vicci Martinez and Nikki Douglas. Best iTunes money I spent this summer. If the official site still had the video on it, I’d link there but…
  • For current events and historical archives purposes only, I am linking to the Wikipedia article on Harold Camping, a Christian radio broadcaster who believed that the world was going to end first on May 21 and later on October 21 in 2011. Because otherwise, I wouldn’t have remembered why I made that joke about the Rapture.
  • It’s almost as if The Guardian knew we’d be finally putting up this podcast this weekend. Check out Nick Cowen’s recent interview with developer Ken Levine about Bioshock Infinite, which will be released some time next year. As for the game’s official website, it’s a little buggy, but can be accessed here (after you verify you’re a legal adult, that is).
  • Seriously, the catalog of games available for purchase at Good Old Games is staggering, and the price is just about right as well.
  • If you haven’t seen the footage of the new Lara Croft in the reboot of Tomb Raider, all you need to do is click here, courtesy of IGN’s YouTube channel. Normally, I’d link to the game’s official website, too, but for some reason it doesn’t want to play nicely with my version Firefox and I can’t even select my language. Also, this is the Topless Robot article I’m referencing, written by a former co-worker of mine, the wonderful Rob Bricken.
  • No, I still haven’t finished Mass Effect, let alone started working on a male Commander Shepard playthrough. This crystal-infused leather isn’t going to skin itself, you know…

And that’s another episode in the can! Next up will hopefully be more interviews from the New York Comic Con as well as a special interview that we’re recording this week on Wednesday. If you have any feedback or questions about anything we talked about, please let us know in the comments.

Geekly Speaking About… “Girl with a Heart Of”

Moody and atmospheric, and that's only a screenshot of "Girl with a Heart Of"

In the ongoing debate on whether or not video games can be art, one of the lynchpins is that art is supposed to have or reflect a statement about the world, pose questions about it, and elicit reactions to it. There are major releases like Heavy Rain which embody this type of marriage between video game, philosophy, and art, but that doesn’t mean that an indie developer can’t join in the fun as well.

Alexei Andreev of Bent Spoon Games is one such developer who over 11 months, starting last January conceptualized and released his very first game called Girl with a Heart Of. As noted in the press release, Andreev hopes that with his game, he can get people to think about what it means to be human and whether or not you can transcend it. It has a lofty goal, but we here at Geeking Out About wanted to see if he was able to achieve it. With review copies in hand, co-editor Jill Pullara and staff writer Jonathan Cherlin journeyed along with main character Raven to the city of Underfoot, and here’s what they had to say (with many spoilers) about the game:

  • First off, I apologize for the audio quality. But I don’t blame TalkShoe at all, because I forgot my own instructions to both Jill and Jonathan and had my cell phone on speaker. I guess I’m going to have to learn how to talk and type at the same time.
  • Throughout this podcast, we know that Alexei Andreev is the sole developer behind the game. He did clarify later by email that he hired artists Choo Kiau Ping and Alice Bessoni, whom he found through DeviantArt; Nick Pittsinger composed the music. Hence, the pronoun switching referring back and forth between a single creator and a development team.
  • Here’s the link to Andreev’s unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign. And one thing of the nice things he noted during his campaign was this: “Anyone that donated (or will donate) at least $5 to this project will get the game for free, even if there is not enough money pledged by the end of funding period.
  • If you’re like me and have never played Final Fantasy VII before, here’s a link to the in-game version of “Aerith’s Theme. “Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy” will resume touring next year; check the show calendar on the website here.
  • Just in case you forgot, Jill and I went through the demo for Hector Badge of Carnage: Episode 1 a while back and really enjoyed it; watch us play it here.
  • Here’s a link to the interview with Andreev at True PC Gaming.com.
  • Though I haven’t seen any of Makoto Shinkai’s work, I really have to commend him for the premise behind his debut short Voices of a Distant Star.
  • I’m glad that Jill and Jonathan were willing to revisit the concepts behind transhumanism; as Andreev says in the interview, he was inspired by LessWrong.com.

Once again, here’s our final take:
Girl with a Heart Of
/////
Created by Bent Spoon Games
Designed by Alexei Andreev
Art by Choo Kiau Ping and Alice Bessoni
Music by Nick Pittsinger
Rating: 13 and up

Pros: Great music, multiple endings and ways to control the narrative, decent replayability, great fighting mechanics, good world building and mythos, ideal for a mobile platform
Cons: Not enough use of fighting mechanics, not enough substance

Jon: Girl with a Heart Of had incredible music, an appropriate art aesthetic, and good / innovative gameplay concepts. It had a good idea for a story that was, unfortunately, never brought to fruition. My other problems with it were that the music cut out after two minutes of entering any area. Also, that there was no dialect to the dialog, which made for a stale reading experience. However, I applaud the developer for creating a creative and innovative game with limited resources. But next time, either keep within a small scope or pool your resources for a bigger game.

Jill: This game clearly had a lot of heart put into it, with a world that is interesting to hear and read about, and an epic battle between light and dark always looming in the distance, and you, Raven, squarely in the middle of it all. Because your heart is special, you and you alone have the ability to stop this endless war between Light and Dark forever. Along your journey you’ll make friends out of enemies, enemies out of friends, learn magic, and have the power to influence the people around you.

This almost sounds like a Bioware game, but it’s not, it’s the indie game Girl with a Heat Of and it broke my heart.

Now there are some games that are just no good, and this is not one of them. Anyone who loves video games, and role playing games especially, will see all the good in this game, but they are also the ones this game will disappoint because this is simply a Chekov’s Gun situation.

And it’s a really big shame, because it’s these things that are being built up to, that I was really looking forward to, that never happen. At the end of the day, when I get the wall of text for the ending, I have that dropping feeling in my heart, the way my mother must have felt when I dropped out of college: You could be so much more.

I do urge you to give this game a chance, it has a lot going for it, and knowing that you may be disappointed in it may let you enjoy it more than I could, having to go into it blind. Try to enjoy it for everything it is, and not what it promises to be.


To purchase a copy of “Girl with a Heart Of” at $5.99 USD for your PC or Mac, you can click here. It’s also available at $2.99 USD for Android devices as well as the iFamily of devices.

Geekly Speaking About Presents… The Womanthology Panel at NYCC 2011

Womanthology editors taking charge at NYCC 2011

Due to having gotten hired full-time by the place I’d been temping for all summer, I was only able to go to the New York Comic Con for two days instead of four this year. As a result, I had to carefully pick and choose which panels I attended, making sure that nothing overlapped too much and that I had ample time to get from one panel room to the next before the official start time.

The very first panel I attended on Saturday was for Womanthology, a highly successful Kickstarter-funded project whose aim is to bring more attention to writers and artists who want to create comics by pairing up new and unproven talent with other creators who have already been working in the industry. The unique part about this project is that all of the creators involved are female.

I’m pleased that I was able to get in to see this panel, and when you listen to the audio, you may understand why as well. Show notes after the jump:

Personally speaking, as the submissions editor and contributor to a different kind of female-empowering comics anthology which will also be doing a Kickstarter campaign this December to help with publishing costs, I love the idea that people can come together so quickly to produce a quality product. I also have my reservations about some of the ideas and suggestions put forth in the panel, which I may discuss in a future Geekly Speaking About podcast.

Interestingly, a final note I have to add about why the idea behind Womanthology is so important comes from the result of a random search I did when I couldn’t remember what time the panel started and I found myself at Mindy Steffen’s website. Steffen is the creator of AER HEAD, an indie comic she created last year. She was also in the audience for the panel and was an attendee at last year’s NYCC as well; the difference between the two years for her was vast:

I noticed a significant difference in people’s general responses to me this year when I mentioned that I colored Marvel comics as Kyle Baker’s assistant. (I was careful not to look like I was blatantly name-dropping, and didn’t bring it up with everyone. It naturally came up in conversations). I had a published Deadpool Max comic to show as an example too. Last year, I toted my portfolio around to publishers and asked advice, and was told at worst that my style wasn’t what they were looking for, and at best to just submit samples online to the company’s general email, not to anyone specific. (I don’t like online art submissions, because like job submissions, I think they go into a black void and my time was wasted). But this year, people paid attention to me more! I got lots of positive feedback from the AER HEAD mini comics, and I may have gotten some possible leads to future projects – fingers crossed!

Now, I may just be a cynical so-and-so sometimes, but were the publishers and editors this year responding to her art and talent more on its own merits or the fact that she has worked with a known quantity and is therefore an approved member of the comics-making club? Will the same kind of recognition extend to all of the unknown talent in Womanthology? I most certainly hope so.

Comments? Feedback? Rebuttals? I look forward to hearing from you below.

Geekly Speaking About… “Voices from New York Comic Con” Part 1

Comics, gaming, anime... everything one could possibly "geek out about" was at the New York Comic Con

Once again, Geeking Out About was at the New York Comic Con, which was held at the Javits Center in New York City. Our review of the show will be uploaded later, but for now I’d like to present to you some highlights from how I spent my Saturday and Sunday. Complete information and links can be found below:

  • Kevin Bolk is the head guy behind Interrobang Studios, whom we’ve profiled before. If you’re interested in checking out the pages of Daddy Daughter Ninja Day: My First Ninja Training Manual, Bolk has generously uploaded some of the illustrations here.
  • Anime USA 2011 will be held this year from November 18 to 20; other guests at the con include voice actor Wendee Lee, the visual kei band BLOOD, and comedian Uncle Yo.
  • The two artists that Jane mentions in the “Art for Hope” book are Jacques Pena and Dave Guertin, and their pieces are pretty sweet. After the show, Jane said by email, “The anthology will be available December 2011 (pending Apple approvals). It will be available for a limited time only through the VIZ Manga apps for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, as well as through VIZManga.com” and “People can donate directly at Architecture for Humanity.”
  • Anne Cain’s work is more awesome in person than on the screen; you can find her DeviantArt gallery here where she has some digital photography as well. You can also see her sister Deb’s work here under the name Studio Mia, where she has sequential pages up. Hey, DC Comics, why haven’t you scouted these talented ladies yet?
  • The Starfire controversy has been widely covered by the comics press, but I think it was this blog post by author Michele Lee wherein she asked her 7-year old daughter’s opinion of the art and depiction which went the most viral. The official DC response (via Twitter) was: “We’ve heard what’s being said about Starfire today and we appreciate the dialogue on this topic. We encourage people to pay attention to the ratings when picking out any books to read themselves or for their children.”
  • Laura Lee’s website is here, and her galleries are a joy to browse through. And while we’re at it, the trailer for Page by Paige is below:

  • I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize profusely to the always-awesome Dean Haspiel, whom I interviewed last year at NYCC, but I fell into a hole after a relationship ended and I never uploaded the interview. In addition to his numerous graphic novels, you can also see Dean’s work in the “Super Ray” comic (PDF) from HBO’s “Bored to Death”; elements of the Ray character are loosely based on him.
  • I started reading comic books back in the mid to late 1990s, and the first stories I loved were the stories of the Chris Claremont-written Uncanny X-Men. When I saw him in Artist Alley, I had wanted to do a quick interview with Claremont, but I decided instead to get audio of him explaining his “Mekanix” miniseries featuring Kitty Pryde to some of her 9th grade female fans who wanted him to sign their comic books. Hearing this old comics vet sharing his work with female fans was just wonderful to me. The woman who laughs at the end came all the way from the Czech Republic to meet him!
  • The questions I had wanted to ask were about the preview piece Claremont had on his table, Wild Blood and how it felt going back into the prose world 20 years after having published First Flight and its sequels. I’ll also add that when I first read them, I totally loved the books and his Nicole Shea is the template upon which I’ve based my female Shepard.
  • Writer Jared Axelrod wasn’t at the table, but artist Steve Walker was, and I was glad to hear him talk about their graphic novel The Battle of Blood and Ink: A Fable of the Flying City which will be coming out in May 2012 from Tor.
  • As always, that snazzy intro to the podcast was “Roma Pt. 2” by greyguy, which I found on ccMixter.org.
  • By the by, if you’re interested in either recording a bumper for the show or advertising with us, please email us at geekingoutabout@gmail.com, and we’d love to work something out.

Stay tuned for “Voices from New York Comic Con” Part 2, which will go up as soon as I finish editing it, which features a very special interview which I got at the very last possible second while NYCC was ending on Sunday.

Geekly Speaking About… “The Commander Shepard Challenge”

Does a Shepard by any other gender kick as much ass? We're about to find out...

If you’ve been listening to our “Geekly Speaking About…” podcasts, you’ve probably heard co-editor Jillian Pullara and me talking about Commander Shepard from the Mass Effect series of games from Bioware. While she’s mostly played the PC game version and I rocked the Xbox 360 version, we both have a similar sensibility towards the main character in that we think she totally kicks ass. Lowell Greenblatt also loves playing Commander Shepard and thinks that he’s got a real compelling story to tell.

But the problem between us is that our Commander Shepards are different genders. And that got us to thinking: Could playing the character in the Bioware game as the opposite of your preferred gender change your perception of the game?

Reference links and show notes, after the jump:

  • Link dump ahoy! Here’s the PC Gamer editorial by Kim Richards, Kotaku’s coverage, and finally the Penny Arcade comic and newspost.
  • It’s also interesting to note that according to this newspost that Jerry Holkins has never played a male Shepard, saying: “I’ve made it pretty clear that I tend to play women in Bioware games – Shepherd (sic) is not now, nor has ever been, a man.  I don’t know who the dude traipsing around in the commercials is; a jerk, most likely.”
  • Here’s the most recent information about the Mass Effect movie adaptation. And speaking of movies, here’s the IMDB page for Doomsday, the movie that Lowell referred to when he was speaking about wooden female action heroes.
  • I messed up: Sarah Michelle Gellar originated the role of Kendall Hart, who was Erica Kane’s daughter on the AMC soap “All My Children,” for which Gellar won a Daytime Emmy. And then she became Buffy.
  • And once again, that snazzy intro to the podcast was “Roma Pt. 2” by greyguy, which I found on ccMixter.org.

Is your Commander Shepard female or male, and why? Would you be willing to play as the opposite gender for a while? Why or why not? We welcome all answers and feedback in the comments.

Two Books Enter: An Assembly Such as This versus A Wife for Mr. Darcy

[Editor’s Note: Many thanks to Lauren at Kid Champ for letting me borrow her “Thundertome” idea for this review series. – TL]

When I first got my Android-enabled phone, I searched for something to read on it during a long 45 minute subway commute. A Google search for “free ebooks” took me to Google Books and their app, and I downloaded two books by Jane Austen, one I’d never read before (Sense and Sensibility), and one I’ve read so very many times over the years: Pride and Prejudice.

The first time I read Pride and Prejudice was outside of a school context, and while the text was somewhat unwieldy to me, I really loved the story of these two mismatched lovers who have to get over themselves before they can really appreciate each other and fall in love. Over the years, I’ve read the book hundreds of times, and I was looking forward to reading it all over again. As I turned the pages on the touch screen with my thumbs, the finer details of the story sunk deeper into my brain and I began to gain a new appreciation for the story. Which, of course, lead to my next thought: How can I read more?

The great thing for fan-fiction authors about Jane Austen’s novels is that they’re currently in the public domain, which means that anyone can take her setting, characters, stories, add on to the story, and actually stand a reasonable chance of having it published by a reputable publishing house. There have been versions where the characters are dealing with a zombie apocalypse, a continuation that features a lot of Regency-era sex, and even one where Mrs. Bennett is a stereotypical Jewish mother.

However, I wasn’t interested in any of those, not yet at least. I wanted to read something as historically accurate as possible,and as true to the original characters as one could get without hijacking Austen using a time machine. After reading lots of reviews, I finally settled on two Kindle books, which I quickly purchased and started reading the next day:

Two books enter, who will win…?

I read Assembly first because the premise intrigued me more. As a female writer, I have problems with writing from a male perspective and I really applaud those writers who are great at writing characters who are an opposite gender. I really wanted to see how Aidan portrayed Mr. Darcy’s internal conflict over his growing feelings for Elizabeth, as Austen herself only writes near the beginning of Chapter 12, “She attracted him more than he liked.”

In Aidan’s book, Darcy is properly the cold and frosty gentleman that Austen shows him to be, and she even adds a hint of crushing superiority, as seen in this description of the attendees of the assembly:

There was no beauty, conversation, or fashion to be found in the entire room save among those with whom he had arrived. Rather, he was surrounded by the common, the dull, and the trite, that class of the barely gentrified whose idea of conversation was no more than gossip — and that of the vulgar sort of which he was the current object. Darcy could not help but compare his present circumstance with the last time he had been to Tattersall’s in search of a suitable new Thoroughbred stallion for his brood mares. Then and there, he privately vowed to purchase no more horseflesh at auction.

She also explains his friendship with Mr. Bingley by introducing the idea that they met after Darcy overheard some men at his gentleman’s club planning a cruel joke on Bingley; their friendship sprang out of Bingley’s true good nature. There’s also the idea that Darcy sees himself as Bingley’s mentor; this is borne out by some great scenes later in the novel where the two are in the gentleman’s parlor at Netherfield and the former is passing along all the stewardship lessons that his father taught him.

I also can find nothing out of tune with Austen’s novel in how Aidan characterizes Darcy’s relationship with his sister or his opinions of Miss Bingley’s marriage designs on him (though she doesn’t comment on the fact that Austen makes it clear that Darcy wanted Bingley to marry Georgiana). Some of my favorite parts of the beginning of this novel involve Darcy’s internal monologue, as in this passage where he’s trying to figure out more of Elizabeth’s personality:

No, Miss Elizabeth Bennet was not impressed with the London sophistication of Miss Bingley or Mrs. Hurst, nor did she appear to feel the necessity of inveigling her way into Caroline’s good graces, as most of her neighbors were doing this very moment [while paying their social calls]. Instead, thought Darcy with dawning comprehension, she found Miss Bingley’s manner objectionable! Far from cultivating her, she had, by the drollery in her eyes, assigned her a place among the ridiculous, as one might do with an amusing but slightly mad relation. Having satisfied himself on what Miss Elizabeth Bennet was about, Darcy found the discovery to have engendered two equal and opposite emotions, which struggled manfully in his breast. The first was to stiffen in indignation at the impertinence of the lady in judging her betters. The second was an impulse to laugh in agreement with her assessment. A twinkle had almost reached Darcy’s eye when he was struck with the remembrance that Miss Bingley was not the only resident of Netherfield who amused Miss Elizabeth Bennet. The twinkle was ruthlessly suppressed as he considered again her manner toward himself.

His further thoughts lead him to conclude that Elizabeth overheard his infamous “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me” remark, and his response to it is to think of it as a challenge:

If she had chosen to sulk, he would be bound [to apologize], but as it was, she had elected to draw swords. Darcy looked up again and found Elizabeth Bennet at the side of her elder sister, both of them looking at a portfolio of Miss Bingley’s latest sketches. A bold move! He smiled to himself. I understand you now, but I fear you are not up to weight if you think to play that game with me! The smile was now accompanied by a satirical eye as he bent to the task of discovering more fully his adversary’s qualities.

I think that this interpretation of how Darcy found himself thinking more about Elizabeth concurs nicely with the original Elizabeth-spoken interpretation:

The fact is, that you were sick of civility, of deference, of officious attention. You were disgusted with the women who were always speaking, and looking, and thinking for your approbation alone. I roused, and interested you, because I was so unlike them.

With this basis in place, the rest of the novel proceeds extraordinarily well, right up until Darcy and Bingley’s departure from Netherfield in Chapter 11—and where almost everything in Assembly falls apart. The inclusion of the character of Fletcher as Darcy’s valet was cute in Netherfield, but becomes a bit too much to deal with in these chapters as he takes a more prominent position in the narrative. And while I rather like the introduction of additional characters in the form of Darcy’s secretary Mr. Hinchcliffe and Darcy’s friend from university Lord Brougham, I felt betrayed by Aidan when she decided to mix in historical figures like Beau Brummell (and turn him into a more frightening Tim Gunn) and allude to the political climate of the day with the mentions of people like Viscount Castlereagh and George Canning, thus tempering my love for this book into a conditional acceptance. To me, even though we know that the book takes place during the Regency period, there’s something wrong with knowing more details about what year, and even though to be involved with or at least knowledgeable about such political affairs would be within the purview of a gentleman such as Mr. Darcy, it goes against so much of what I love about Austen’s work in that it’s timeless and apolitical.

There are two more novels in Aidan’s Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman trilogy, the second of which takes place entirely before his visit to his aunt in Rosings Park. In contrast, Simonsen’s A Wife for Mr. Darcy takes place in one book, and due to its premise, the events are different. My reading of the novel started well enough, beginning with a private apology from Darcy to Elizabeth Bennet for his uncouth remarks at the Meryton assembly. Simonsen skillfully interweaves lines from some of Darcy’s later speeches into the their little tête-à-tête, and the result is near-seamless and amusing:

“Your apology is accepted, Mr. Darcy. I appreciate that you took the trouble to come to tell me in person that I am more than tolerable,” Lizzy said, half laughing at his clumsy effort to repair any damage resulting from his comment.
Darcy winced at her response. “I can assure you that I find you to be much more than tolerable, Miss Elizabeth. You are a very handsome woman, and I might have had an opportunity to express such a sentiment if I had sought an introduction. However, I do not have the talent of conversing easily with those whom I have never seen before. I cannot appear to be interested in their concerns as others do, and I find I have little patience for the type of discourse one hears at these dances.”
“What type of discourse is that, Mr. Darcy?”
“The usual banter about weather and roads and other such things that are of little interest to me,” and leaning forward in his chair, he continued, “Whether it be Meryton or London, I hear the same conversations. A lady will comment on the number of couples in attendance at a dance, and the gentleman will respond by mentioning the size of the ballroom. And what, pray tell, do we learn from that exchange? One party is good with measurements, and the other can count.”

Simonsen also acknowledges Austen’s reasons why Darcy would be impressed by Elizabeth, and the scenes between him and Elizabeth when they meet again at the Lucas residence seem almost perfunctory. It isn’t until the Chapter 3 when everything goes completely off the rails with the introduction of Simonsen’s Georgiana Darcy. I couldn’t put my finger on what it is I didn’t like about her, and then it hit me during this exchange in Chapter 7, when she decides to attend the ball at Netherfield:

Georgiana, whose clothes were made by the finest dressmakers in London, laughed. “I am going to Netherfield for the purpose of attending a ball, not to shop in Meryton.”
“Forgive me. I am tired. As an aside, you may be interested to know that after the ball, Louisa and Caroline will return to town, and Mrs. Crenshaw will come to keep house for Bingley.”
“Mrs. Crenshaw and her little band of ruffians! The same ones who put mud in my riding boots? I am convinced that it was Athena who actually did the deed, but she was put up to it by those monster brothers of hers.”
“I can easily believe it. When Bingley leased the house in Surrey, I saw Athena throwing rocks at the ducks. For such a little girl, she was remarkably accurate.”
“Why does Charles put up with their obnoxious behavior?”
“He finds them spirited.”
“Spirited! If they were in my care, I would spirit them away to the nearest woodshed for a proper whipping.”

It was not long after this that I stopped reading the book and I haven’t been convinced I should return to it any time soon, as this goes completely against Austen’s description of Georgiana Darcy (through Elizabeth’s eyes): “Elizabeth, who had expected to find in her as acute and unembarrassed an observer as ever Mr. Darcy had been, was much relieved by discerning such different feelings.” (Translation: Georgiana is not nearly as outspoken as Darcy is.)

In writing this article, I’ve skipped ahead in A Wife for Mr. Darcy as well, just to be sure that I’m giving Simonsen and her novel a fair shake, and encountered more of what turned me off: allusions to the then-current political climate, breaches in etiquette and conduct during Elizabeth and the Gardiner’s visits to Pemberley. The final straw came in the form of this line of internal monologue when Darcy confronts Lydia about George Wickham: “Grabbing a wooden chair from the hallway, Darcy brought it into the room and sat opposite to Lydia, and he thought what a little shit she was [emphasis mine].” If I could get a refund on a Kindle book, I would.

So congratulations go to Pamela Aidan for this victory over Mary Lydon Simonsen in the world of Pride & Prejudice published fan fiction. And now I’m off to research how to remove and scrub a Kindle book from your library.

Geekly Speaking About… “The Star Wars Blu-Ray Conundrum”

It’s time once again for another edition of “Geekly Speaking About,” which we recorded on September 14, 2011. Joining myself and co-editor Jill Pullara are two of our newest contributors, Lowell Greenblatt and Jonathan Cherlin. We really do hope to get these going on a more frequent basis, and your feedback is always helpful. Show notes are right after the jump:

  • Star Wars: The Old Republic will be coming out sometime in “holiday 2012”; meanwhile, players of Star Wars: Galaxies can enjoy their last hurrah when the servers shut down on December 15. If you’re more of a Trekker, the Star Trek MMO has you covered; yes, it’s out of beta now.
  • Incidentally, my main on WoW is a level 51 Forsaken hunter on Proudmoore, and I’m trying to find a good RP server as well. Suggestions can go into the comments.
  • After talking about it twice, I thought we’d link it this time; here’s where you can find Richard Bartle’s article about the four types of RP gamers. For your further reading-about-MMO pleasure, you can check out SmartBomb, written by Heather Chaplin.
  • More information about Patrick Rothfuss and his works can be found here; I believe I’m going to have to put these books on my Kindle list as well (because we’re running out of space for them in our bookshelves). The Hunger Games is being made into a movie, and the Dresden Files was made into a TV show which ran for only one season.
  • Speaking of “Game of Thrones” isn’t it awesome that Peter Dinklage won an Emmy for his performance? He is such an awesome actor; I’ve loved and had a crush on him ever since I saw The Station Agent.
  • Catherine—which looks really cool—features animation by Studio 4C, the same studio which is currently bringing to you the new “Thundercats” series.
  • Not embedding it, but here is the first of the Red Letter Media Star Wars reviews; enjoy the rest at the risk of your free time as it’s almost as long as the movie itself. And as for “The Clone Wars,” Jill later noted that two of her friends who are huge Star Wars fans have come to love it, “either through sheer will or by legitimate means.”
  • Jurassic Park 4 will happen, as reported by Deadline.com from the San Diego Comic Con. And if Steven Spielberg wants to have two to three years to make it, I think Universal should just let him have that extra time, don’t you?
  • The next incarnation of The Crow does have a director but not a leading man. And for some reason, I’m actually glad it won’t be Bradley Cooper.
  • Just for you, Jonathan, here’s a link to The Hollywood Reporter’s analysis of the reasoning behind Frank Darabont’s departure from “The Walking Dead.”
  • And finally, here’s the link to all of the letters that ran in Paste.com regarding the conversation between a person who loves Final Fantasy VII and someone who has never played it before.

We hope to record a podcast or two during the upcoming New York Comic Con; suggestions and feedback can go in the comments!

Trisha’s Take: Footloose review

Footloose

Directed by Craig Brewer
Starring Kenny Womald, Julianne Hough, Dennis Quaid, Miles Teller
Rating: Not Available at time of Review

When I first heard almost two years ago that Paramount Pictures was going to produce a remake of the cult Kevin Bacon dance movie Footloose, that it wouldn’t have elaborate dance sequences, and that it would be an “edgier drama” than the original or the musical based off of it, I said that they were off their rocker:

Remember a little movie musical called West Side Story? You know, that one that’s based off of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and won 10 Academy Awards, including the one for Best Picture?

Well, that movie had racial discrimination, gang violence, death by knife, and a near-rape scene and yet also features some of the most elaborate and most demanding choreography ever seen on film, thanks to director Jerome Robbins and his cast of mostly Broadway veterans.

At the same time, however, I like to keep in mind that while yes, there really are very few original plots out there—and way too many tropes—as Multiplex creator Gordon McAlpin recently put it, a good movie is all in how it’s executed.

By the by, there will be plenty of spoilers for the plot of the original Footloose movie in this review; it’s been 27 years since it came out, for crying out loud. However, I will try like hell not to spoil exactly how the remake does things because I want you to be as pleasantly surprised as I was when I saw it.

Ren McCormack (Kenny Wormald) has moved from Boston, Massachusetts to the tiny town of Bomont, Tennessee (population: 19,200) to live with his aunt and uncle after his mother’s death. While attempting to fit in, McCormack learns that a series of strict laws have been put into place following the tragic death of five high school seniors just three years earlier. With the help of some friends, McCormack hopes to overturn the unjust laws so that everyone can feel free to dance.

Newcomer Wormald is enjoying his first major motion picture release as the lead after roles such as “Dancer” in films like You Got Served and even Clerks II and a run in the direct-to-DVD Center Stage: Turn it Up. Unfortunately, I can’t tell from the material whether or not he’s a good actor. Because director Craig Brewer and original screenplay writer Dean Pitchford stuck so close to the original story, I had a very difficult time seeing Wormald for his own abilities because I was too busy comparing him to Kevin Bacon’s performance. Sure, Wormald is a much better dancer, but Bacon definitely has him beat in the acting department.

Where Brewer and Pitchford moved away from the original is where I liked Wormald the most, but I suspect that it’s more due to the fact that they revealed more backstory and delved deeper into the themes of the original than it is to Wormald’s acting abilities. Perfect examples of this are the scenes between Ariel Moore (played by real-life dancer Julianne Hough) and her bad boy race car driver boyfriend Chuck Cranston (Patrick John Flueger) when she tries to break things off with him, and after that when she has her showdown with her preacher father, played by Dennis Quaid. Due to the added bit of backstory which fleshes out Rev. Moore’s motivation for helping push through the restrictive laws and some other scenes which showcase Ariel’s rebelliousness, Hough’s final outburst and emotional breakdown is so powerful that it’s difficult to watch (and not just because it may be triggering to some). By the end of the sequence, I wondered why no one had thought to shove this girl into some serious psychotherapy. It’s because Brewer decided to delve deeper into the themes of loss and grief and how they change a person that the story as a whole became stronger.

I also loved Miles Teller’s portrayal of Willard, Ren’s first friend in town. Teller infuses Willard with such glee and unabashed love for his town and all the people in it that you completely forget that he’s supposed to be a “stupid yokel” and are simply charmed by him. I had a feeling I’d seen Teller somewhere before, and was pleased to learn that he’d been in Rabbit Hole in a much more demanding role—playing opposite Nicole Kidman, of all people. I laughed the hardest during his scenes, and Teller definitely stole the focus from Wormald in every scene they had together. Another bit I noticed and loved was that it was the owner of the drive-in theater and the owner of the cotton gin who wanted to keep rock and dance music alive in the town, a nod to how African-Americans have always tried to keep their music alive when it’s being repressed; this is apparently a common theme in Brewer’s work, as seen in his breakout film Hustle & Flow.

However, in attempting to give Ren more of a backstory, they inadvertently made him “bulletproof”—that is, after two certain scenes, one between Ren’s uncle Wes (Ray McKinnon) and the reverend, and another shortly after between Ren and the school principal (Brett Rice), there is no way that Ren can do anything wrong because thinking so will make you out to be a Bad Person. This turns Ren into a Gary Stu, and while those scenes were emotionally satisfying for the smackdown within, like a Twinkie, you start to realize that the scenes were hollow and full of fluff. As such, the final brawl between Chuck’s crew and Ren and his friends becomes rather anti-climactic, even if Ariel and Rusty do manage to earn their Badass Female Fighter merit badges during it.

“But what about the dancing?” you may ask. “Tell me about the dancing!” For every point that Brewer and Paramount Pictures earned for casting real live dancers as their leads, five points should be taken away for shooting the group dance scenes so haphazardly that you can’t even see their movements. More telling, the storyboarding keeps the camera focused on above-the-torso shots. It’s not like people who are going to see Footloose are going to be turned off by longer and more elaborate dance sequences.

Just as the first flawed Harry Potter movie for me resulted in my making a mental checklist of which scenes made it into the adaptation, which did not, and what things got added rather than fully enjoying the story, so went my viewing of the new Footloose. That is not to say that I didn’t like it. It’s just that one can only have so many Twinkies.


Warning: Common side effects of seeing Footloose, which will go into wide release on October 14, is that you will have the song by Kenny Loggins stuck in your head for days. Everybody cut—!

Trisha’s Quote of the Day: When in Philly, don’t be in Scotland

If the movie is set in Philadelphia, why aren’t you filming it in Philadelphia? Admittedly, when I visited Glasgow, one of my first comments was that it reminded me of Philadelphia. But even so, Philadelphia itself would be a better stage for a story supposedly taking place in the City of Brotherly Love. Besides, your extras in Glasgow are going to have the wrong incomprehensible accent.

LiveJournal Daily Quiz co-moderator Angledge has some issues with the shooting location for the movie adaptation of World War Z where filming has already begun.

The Moving Day Raffle

Click for a larger version! (c) Geeking Out About

One of the problems about being a huge geek is that sometimes you acquire a lot of… stuff. And when you’re moving, the least amount of stuff you have to move, the better. My boyfriend found himself in a pickle recently because he’s gearing up for us to move in together, and found a shelf full of anime plushies and other memorabilia that he’s no longer interested in.

Sure, he could have gone the eBay route—and we may revisit that idea when we unpack—but the more fun option, in my opinion, is to give away the items for free! So, he graciously let me have them, and I’m going to be running a contest with the following choice of three prizes:

  • A large or small Grunty from .hack//SIGN (plush)
  • A large Chiyo from Azumanga Daioh (plush)
  • 3 small plushies from Inuyasha (Miroku, Sango and Inuyasha)
  • Kuroneko from Trigun and Kiba from Wolf’s Rain (both plush, and thanks to @Furbysbadday for the fix!)
  • A large plush Piyoko from DiGi Charat
  • 1/6-scale figure of Yuna from Final Fantasy X
  • An unboxed figure of Padodu from Mahou Yugi

There are currently three ways to win:
1. Log into your Flickr account and comment on the picture in this set. I will also be uploading pictures of the prize-drawing as well to this same set.
2. Log into your Disqus account using whatever method you like best and comment on this entry.
3. Find the special Tweet from the GeekingOutAbout Twitter account and re-Tweet it to your friends.

Other things to know about this contest:
1. Winners will be initially contacted either via the Flickr commenting system, the contact system you have set up on your Disqus profile, or by direct message on Twitter. This means that if you choose the third option for entering the contest, you must be following the GeekingOutAbout Twitter account. Further contact will be by email.
2. All prizes will be shipped by USPS Priority Mail, and I will ship internationally.
3. All comments and/or re-Tweets must be made prior to 11:59 pm Eastern on Thursday, August 18. The winner will be chosen and announced before midnight the following day.

Any other questions about this contest can be directed to geekingoutabout@gmail.com. Good luck!

Trisha’s Quote of the Day: Of magical ponies and the women who love them

Rainbow Dash and Rarity could not be more different, and yet they are both girls. Rainbow Dash is not presented as wrong for being athletic and having no interest in fashion, nor is Rarity presented as wrong for being more stereotypically girly and interested in cats, clothes, and jewelry.

This was a revelation to me, as sad as that may be! Think of the variety of male presentations in those shows that have a Smurfette: little boys can watch them and learn to be a strong, silent leader, a brave hero, or a witty intellectual. Girls watch themselves be summarized down to a single word whose presentation might not fit. But in [My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic], there are a half-dozen main girls who are all distinct, all respected, and all work together after they move past the natural friction caused by their differences.

World of Warcraft guildmaster and Glee fanfic author Miggy explains why Ponies aren’t just for Bronies.

First-time author to use first book to raise funds for teens in need

Cover by Katie Wertz

When I first dreamed up the idea behind GeekingOutAbout.com, I was determined that one of the key things we would always do is to not only highlight what’s neat and geeky out there in the world but also to highlight those other creative people who are choosing to get up off of their butts and make their dreams a reality. That’s why I was extremely excited when a fanfic author named Jennifer Matarese whose work I’ve followed for years finally self-published her first original fiction novel to the Kindle, with other eBook formats to come.

Titled Heroine Addiction, it’s the story of Vera Noble, a retired bisexual superheroine who is just trying to live a quiet life in a small town. Unfortunately, the world of capes and crusaders catches up with her when her father Everett, a notable hero in the big city, is reported missing by his arch-nemesis and secret male lover and Vera is the only one who is able to find him.

To celebrate the release of her first book, Matarese has decided that instead of setting aside some cash to buy ads on high profile blogs or to create print copies to sign and place in her local bookstore as promotion, she will be donating either $100 or 50% of the net proceeds of all of the sales of the first edition her book (whichever is larger) to a charity that works with GLBTQ teens.

“Heroine Addiction is a book about a strong bisexual woman who walks away from her previous life and her family drama,” she wrote by email. “While I was considering which charity to donate to, I thought about the difference between Vera and her father, Everett, who finally leaves his wife for his own worst (male) enemy. Vera coming out as bisexual did not end in tears and recriminations. For all their faults, her parents would never turn her away for that. Everett, on the other hand, would not have been so lucky. Regardless of his station in life, Everett would have ended up alone and out on the street if he’d come out of the closet to his parents as a teenager. His father’s pride in and loyalty to his family only went so far.”

She chose the Hetrick-Martin Institute, an organization whose mission is to help GLBTQ teens and young adults who need a safe and supportive environment by providing direct services and referrals that will help guide them through a most difficult period in their lives. The Hetrick-Martin Institute is also home to the Harvey Milk High School, a fully accredited public high school which aims to provide a quality education to all teens in an environment that is free of the bullying and intolerance one might find in other schools.

“It’s appalling that there is a need for such a school in this country,” continued Matarese, “that there is a need for a safe place for GLBTQ teens who’ve been kicked out of their homes, bullied out of their schools, or shouldered out of their families specifically for being themselves. That said, the organization does a lot of good for GLBTQ teens stuck in an awful situation, and I can’t wait to make my first donation.”

The best news of all is that if Matarese manages to gain a significant amount of sales before June 30, the Institute will be able to include those donations into a current initiative they’re running where every donation made in the month of June will be matched by the Board of Directors, to a maximum of $100,000.

Recently, there has been an issue about there not being enough female creators who work in genre fiction, specifically with superheroes. I am glad to say that due to the quality of her work, Jennifer Matarese deserves have her name added to the list of those who do.

And if by buying her book means you get to indirectly help save a troubled teen’s life, then that’s something truly heroic, isn’t it?

Announcing the winners of the “50 Word Story” contest!

When I say that it was tough for micro-fiction author Tim Sevenhuysen, co-editor Jill Pullara and myself to judge the winners of our first annual birthday contest, I’m not exaggerating. We received over 25 entries from 17 participants (because a person could enter more than once), and all of them were very, very good.

Below, in no specific order, you can see examples of entries we thought were serious contenders:

Moving On
by Dashiell Powers

He refused to believe that it was over. Despite his best efforts, he was just too good at it to stay forever. He’d seen many come and go, and only a few remained. He waved goodbye one last time.

John, at twenty years old, was finally forced to graduate kindergarten.

(Based, sadly, on a true story)
by Ray Stillwell

Jill brought the newspaper ad to her knitting group:

For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.

She’d answered the ad. They now knit blankets for babies stillborn at a nearby hospital. For a few moments at the end of a tragedy, they can be held with love, and buried with dignity.

The Fifty First Word
by W. V. Kahler

The famous Detective stroked his petite mustache as he looked sternly at the gathered suspects.

They, in return, waited in trepidation for his declaration.

After twenty minutes of verbal reconstruction of the sinister events—followed by two minute of deafening silence—he removed his pince-nez and announced:

“The murderer is

The Dangers of Genre
by Jeffrey Williams

“Just…have to stop,” Emily thought.

She didn’t stop. She typed, “It climbed the stairs; its footsteps shook the house,” and her house shook.

“Just have to stop….”

She typed that it burst through the door. Her door burst open.

“It saw her.” Weeping, fighting, Emily typed. “Now it had her.”

Untitled
by Art Carey

Driven by an uncontrollable, ravenous hunger, Ethan wielded the gleaming spoon like a lethal weapon, stabbing and scooping the sodden grains of rice, barley and rolled oats with ferocious energy. But his photo would never appear on the wall of a post office because he was only a cereal killer.

The winners are as follows:

Tim Sevenhuysen’s Choice:

A Trashy Story
by Chris J. Fries

In a neglected corner of a sprawling trash heap, a tattered teddy bear softly shed a tear of joy.

The rumbling bulldozer had made a rare visit, dredging up a broken dolly in the dozer’s diesel wake.

Dolly smiled at Teddy through dirty blue eyes.

Teddy was no longer alone.

Jill Pullara’s Choice

The 8:15 Train
by D.C. McMillen

We purposely collided on the 8:15. Before reaching this pivotal moment, we’d spent weeks admiring each other from afar. She laughed, taking the blame for our faux collision. Some small talk, then we played hooky at a nearby hotel. Now I take the 7:45.

Trisha Lynn’s Choice

I Think Yes
by Leslie Hanna

I’m blocking the tall guy’s camera with florid Bhangra dance moves but he’s nice, laughs, says “you’re awesome,” kisses me on the cheek.

Away we dance.

Later he finds me, pulls me aside.

“I have a confession.”

Whispers, “My name is Diego. I’m not Indian.

Smiles. “Can we get together anyway?”

Each of the above will receive an electronic edition of Sevenhuysen’s book Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One. In addition, a $25 gift certificate will go to D. C. McMillen as our Grand Prize winner, who chose to go with Amazon.com as the online retailer of choice.

Congratulations to all of our entrants and happy birthday to us!

Geekly Speaking About… “Top Gear USA” Episode 3

Adam Ferrara attempts to jump a $1,000 used Cadillac over a ramp

Thanks to a recent bout of insomnia, I finally finished leveling out and editing the second of the two audio podcasts that Kara Dennison and I recorded while we reviewed the first three episodes of “Top Gear USA.”

The reason why I had to do a lot of editing work on this one is that while the audio tracks for Kara and myself were just fine, the one for our our special guest amateur autocross racer Rob Lantz was considerably quieter, and so I had to splice out and amplify almost every part where he was speaking.

Originally recorded live on December 5, 2010, I hope you enjoy this blast from the “Geekly Speaking About…” past:

Luckily, “Top Gear USA” has been renewed for a second season, so there’s a chance we could do another podcast like this again to see how it has improved over the first episodes of its inaugural season. If you’d like to download the audio, you can do so by going to our page at TalkShoe. And despite all the audio problems, it really was fun doing this, and I hope to be able to do more live podcasts soon.