The latest TV phenomenon is the HBO “perspective” of the Game of Thrones books. I actually have not been watching. I’m not really a fan of the deviation from the books. I realize that the author, George R. R. Martin (GRRM), is heavily involved with the retelling of his books. Perhaps his reasons for changing the fates of some characters or emphasizing certain character elements is his way of “correcting the flaws in the books”. Well then he should have fixed them before publishing the books. GRRM must be the worlds most A.D.D. author, or the most indecisive author.
I’m actually somewhat reluctant to read books 6 and 7 (if he ever gets around to publishing them) because I’m worried about the continuity with the first 5 books. He has already altered the fates of a few characters from the books. How will that affect the next book? If he uses some lame flashback mechanic or character recollection of the Red Wedding (**SPOILER**) to explain why suddenly Rob’s wife is dead (because she wasn’t killed at the Red Wedding in the book – in fact she wasn’t even at the wedding – and is the source of much controversy that she is carrying an heir), I will be quite upset and GRRM will be quite the sell out (and I know sell outs, I’m a George Lucas fan).
The old adage “the book is always better” definitely applies in this case but since the author has direct influence of the story told on HBO, then personally they will be two different entities. The HBO series will be a *cough*bastardized*cough* re-telling of the books and not worthy of my patronage.
Am I really the only one that feels this way? Is everyone else so taken in by the HBO series, and too intimidated to actually read a book, that these differences are not that troubling??
I think what pisses me off the most is that GoT was actually declared the best HBO series since The Sopranos!! REALLY!! The Sopranos was an original concept, not an adapted screenplay. There shouldn’t be any comparison. Oh, and aside from Peter Dinklage, the casting of GoT is terrible.
If you are a Star Wars fan, some very exciting news was announced this week; the cast for Episode VII. It seems I’m in the minority when I say that I think the cast looks pretty good. All the so called “fans” that just want to dis on Lucas and piss off the rest of us that are the true fans of the franchise are just trying to troll (and believe me, I know a troll when I see one).
Back in the day, around 1997 – 1998, I picked up a book called “Teach Yourself HTML4 in 24 Hours”. It was my first glimpse into the world of web development. Thanks to SamsNet Publishing, I read that book cover to cover and referenced is so much the cover literally came off. CSS was still in its early stages and JavaScript was hated by everyone. Creating dynamic content was a test in perseverance and willpower. If I wanted a cool menu system, and I didn’t want to write it myself, I had to find something I liked on places like http://www.dynamicdrive.com or research how to do it using DHTML (which I don’t think even exists anymore).
The new iOS 7 has been live for a few weeks now and
The average work day is 8-to-5 where normally people (usually on salary) will take an hour for lunch. I never take an hour for lunch. In fact, I rarely even take a lunch at all. Personally, I can finish eating in about 10-15 minutes (normally because 98% of the time I bring my lunch). If I take an actual lunch then I am sitting around doing nothing for 15-45 minutes. I find that not only excruciatingly boring but extremely unproductive (unless I have good company).
Almost daily I read CNET, ZDnet and several other news feeds regarding technology trends. I do this so I can keep up with how the technology and the industry is changing. I’ve noticed that there have been several articles claiming that the PC is dying. These claims are based on the declining number of desktop sales. I do wonder though if these statistics are only taking into account mass-manufactured computers (i.e. HP, Dell, etc). Personally, I have never bought a premade computer, I’ve always built all my computers.