Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Star Wars: Let’s Keep the Expectations Realistic

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On December 14, 2015

In Geek Canon, Movies, Star Wars

Star Wars The Force Awakens - Kylo RenThis should be declared “Star Wars Week”. If someone hasn’t done that already, then I’m declaring it despite the fact that I do not have the clout nor the viral influence to make it official. So, with that said, lets get on with it.

The obvious reason I would make such a declaration is the release of the seventh installment of the most beloved Star Wars franchise. I am beyond excited for the movie’s launch and I don’t even have a ticket to see it yet. I’m just excited for the continuation of the story and the characters that I have loved since I was a child. All the hype, however, does have me a little worried. I hope folks are not expecting this movie to be a cinematic masterpiece, especially those folks that are not big Star Wars fans like the rest of us.

I don’t have any inside knowledge, nor do I know J.J. Abrams or Kathleen Kennedy personally, but I’m still pretty sure neither one of them are trying to release the next Gone With the Wind or Titanic. Abrams just wants to tell the next chapter in the story. I think it would be pretty naive to expect this movie to be considered for a “Best Picture” Oscar. I’m certainly not expecting it (I am, however, expecting perhaps some technical Oscar nominations). I am also expecting it to have some pretty huge box office numbers (but that should be obvious to anybody).

In the end, folks, remember, it’s just Star Wars so keep your expectations realistic. It’s going to be science fiction, it’s going to have something that will appeal to children, there will probably be plots within plots. It’s not a biopic, it’s not based on true events, it’s not going to adhere to the laws of Physics, its fantasy. In other words, don’t read what the critics say, just go see it for yourself and remember, it’s just a movie (although for most of us, it’s much more than “just a movie” 🙂 )

/MTFBWY

Empire (In Her Name: Redemption)

Book Review: Darkfever

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On December 10, 2015

In Book Review, Fantasy

Darkfever (Fever, #1)Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning
My rating:[rating=3]
(Click here to read this review on Goodreads)

This was another one of those books I snagged for free, probably from Book Bub. The book starts kind of slow. I had a hard time with the main character ultimately having some kind of supernatural abilities. She seemed like such a plain Jane/fashionista, which may have been the author’s intention. When Mac was described as having pink fingernails and ostentatious clothing, I started envisioning Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde.

I never stop reading a book; once I start it I intend to finish it no matter how horrid I think the book is. This book was not horrid, just slow to get started. By the end, however, I was starting to get hooked. In fact, under the right circumstances, I may even be inclined to pick up the next book to see what happens next.

While I may be off to a slow start with this author, that doesn’t mean I would turn away from anything else Moning has written. On the contrary, I would probably feel quite compelled to read it.

View all my reviews

The MMO Times: Returns in 2016

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On December 9, 2015

In Gaming, MMO Times, MMORPG

Greetings Readers,

Since Thanksgiving ended life has been a flurry of activities. Traveling home, decorating for Christmas, arranging a meet and greet with Santa, buying Christmas gifts, starting at a new client, etc. etc. etc. I have tried to put together the next issue/post but I just haven’t had the time to do the research.
Therefore I have decided that I am going to postpone writing the next post until January so I can remove one activity from my list of things to try to keep up on (not that anyone is forcing me to write them). If you want to try to keep up with news during the next couple of weeks, here are the sites I normally pull from:

2016 is going to be a big year, especially for those that are fans of Blizzard games so I’m sure there won’t be any shortage of noteworthy headlines to share. So until next year …

Merry Christmas from The MMO Times

… and a safe and Happy New Year!

/cheers

The MMO Times is a post I put together periodically of different MMO/gaming news articles that I think are interesting, fun and/or exciting. If you are interested in receiving these posts in an e-mail please click here to subscribe.

I Have Saved Middle Earth!

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On December 2, 2015

In General Cogitation

Destroyed the ring and saved Middle EarthWhat began in January of this year, has finally come to an end. It took me 11 months and 2 days to finally walk the distance Frodo walked from Bag End to destroy “The One Ring” in Mordor. 1,779 miles, which is approximately 3,543,997 steps! My Walk to Mordor challenge is finally over (and I did it better than Frodo because I still have all ten of my fingers)! I think next year I will try for the extra 1,625 miles, which is essentially from Minas Tirith back to Bag End, so I guess I will have to update my little calculator on my website to include those milestones. Since I got a bit of a late start this year and I didn’t start exercising consistently in the mornings until July, I think I have a pretty good shot at completing the extra distance.

So 1,779 miles is the hypothetical distance between Bag End and the point inside Mount Doom when Frodo destroyed the ring. I’m sure most of you, like me, probably can’t fully appreciate that distance in terms of two fictional locations, so I did some research to find some actual locations. I used the map coordinates of Cincinnati as my starting point and I picked the more interesting locations and points of interest that would be within that distance. So, after having walked 1,779 miles, I could have essentially walked from Cincinnati to …

[table]
Location,Distance,Direction
El Salvador – San Salvador,1772 miles,South
Canada – Nunavut – Coral Harbour,1731 miles,North
Canada – Alberta,1689 miles,Northwest
Dominican Republic – Santo Domingo,1669 miles,Southeast
Phoenix – Arizona,1581 miles,West
[/table]

There are several more locations that are within that distance, but I just picked a few to give the distance some perspective. I found the following website to find these distances. http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/distances.html?n=414. I don’t have any reason to question if the calculations on this site are legitimate so I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Anyway, since I am going to do this again next year, who will be brave enough to do it with me?? I can add you to my calculator to help you keep track of your progress if you like. Frodo didn’t do it alone, so why should I!

/cheers

Turkey Holiday 2015

By

On November 30, 2015

In General Cogitation

florida-houseIt’s been a while since I have posted something. It wasn’t from a lack of subject matter (which has often given me writer’s block in the past). No, this time it was warm climates and crashing waves. I spent another Thanksgiving along the shores of southern Florida. I’m not a beach person. As far as I’m concerned silicon belongs in circuit boards, not stuck between my toes and in the crevasses of my feet (I’ll let that visual sink in).

I was in Fort Lauderdale last week, staying in the house pictured above. While the beach was, literally, across the street, I only visited it once. Actually, probably one of the best highlights from the trip was spending 3 hours in Sun Life Stadium. Granted the Dolphins lost that game, but watching a game in the home stadium has long been a bucket list item for me. I mean, how often can you cross off a bucket list item?

Everyday it was in the mid-70’s and a hot tub was just beyond the door, which I did use quite often last week. In fact my post-Thankgiving meal activity was sitting in the hot tub (before watching the Bears and Packers game). A steaming, bubbling hot tub is very cathartic both mentally and physically.

Despite the warm climate, after a week I did long for home. I don’t mind vacationing in Florida, but I don’t think its a place where I could live. I don’t mind the seasonal weather changes that marks the passage of time. After a week, sleeping in your own bed sounds just as refreshing as a Florida vacation sounded prior to leaving for vacation. So I’m back in chilly Ohio, ready to get back to work.

I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving too, no matter where you celebrated it.

/cheers

Meeting Your Fitness Goals

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On November 17, 2015

In General Cogitation

Meet Your Fitness Goals (or you're a girlie man)Rarely have I ever set a fitness goal at the beginning of the year and actually met that goal, but it looks like that is about to change. I’ve talked a lot over the past 10 months about the Walk to Mordor fitness challenge and, as of the writing of this post, I am less than 100 miles away from completing it (currently at 1,696 miles); 1,779 miles walked within a calendar year and I have until December 31st to get there. I am going to do the challenge again next year and hopefully improve how far I go to eventually attempt the other half of the challenge (… And Back Again, which adds another 1,625 miles which is the approximate distance from Minas Tirith to Bag End). I think next year someone should join me! Frodo didn’t do it alone!!!

I also set another goal late this past summer. I started at a client in mid-to-late July, and I had just started a morning exercise routine. I decided that I was going to work out every week day morning (starting around 5am) until I take vacation the week of Thanksgiving. I am 3 days away from achieving that goal. Granted I may have missed one or two days since July because of illness or complete and utter exhaustion, but I’m proud to say that I did it! During the week of Thanksgiving I am going to take some much-needed time to rest and tell myself that I have earned a week of sleeping in the mornings instead of getting up to work out. Of course my body is trained to do that so unlearning it for only a week will be the biggest challenge (especially come Monday the 30th).

I still have quite a bit of work in front of me to slim down, perhaps that will be a goal for next year (beyond going “back to Mordor”).

/cheers

minion_keboard_smI could get so much more accomplished if I only had minions!

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