Pop quiz. Can you match the dragon color to the deadly substance exhaled?
A. Black | 1. Acid | |
B. Blue | 2. Fire | |
C. Green | 3. Ice | |
D. Red | 4. Lightning | |
E. White | 5. Poison Gas |
Science fiction author and podcaster
Pop quiz. Can you match the dragon color to the deadly substance exhaled?
A. Black | 1. Acid | |
B. Blue | 2. Fire | |
C. Green | 3. Ice | |
D. Red | 4. Lightning | |
E. White | 5. Poison Gas |
There’s a really interesting lecture by Michael Drout on the 4/16/10 iTunes feed for The Tolkien Professor podcast. Here’s a sample:
Strider, who became Aragorn, was originally a hobbit named “Trotter,” who wore wooden shoes or had wooden feet even. (He’d been tortured by the Dark Lord and so had to wear shoes, or maybe even have prosthetic wooden feet.) And “Trotter” persisted forever. Meriadoc’s name was “Marmaduke.” And my favorite one is that Frodo was “Bingo” — for a long time, I mean, like, multiple drafts. So what I tell my students is: revise, revise, revise … Or actually, the other one is that in The Hobbit, Gandalf’s original name was “Bladderthin.” And again that persisted through whole drafts.
Nice. I just noticed that The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is now available for the Mac, as a $10 instant download. Seriously, best ten bucks you’ll ever spend.
ETA: Listen to my December 2010 interview with Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert.
Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy will be interviewing Robin Wasserman, author of the YA science fiction novel Skinned, and Eli Kintisch, author of Hack the Planet, a nonfiction book about ambitious and risky geoengineering schemes to address climate change. If anyone has any questions they’d like us to ask them, feel free to suggest them.
Yay! I just saw that Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, the greatest video game of all time, is getting the special edition treatment and will be re-released this summer. Check it out.
ETA: Listen to my December 2010 interview with Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert.
John Joseph Adams and I were just recording some material for Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy in which we briefly discuss the horror that was CGA graphics. You kids today with your “Halo” and your “Super Mario Galaxy” will never understand what we went through. Not only did we only have FOUR colors to look at, but they were the four goddamn ugliest colors ever dreamt up in the twisted imagination of some sadistic dark god of color-blind computer engineers. Here are some screenshots to show you what I mean. Keep in mind that I spent literally HUNDREDS (possibly thousands) of hours playing these three games.
Apparently my copy of Shadow & Claw is a big believer in safe sex:
The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy Podcast, Episode 18: Organ Repossession! Con Men! Dystopian Satire!
Eric Garcia, author of Matchstick Men and Repo Men, joins us to discuss con men, dark comedy, and dinosaurs living among us. Dave and John talk violent satirical ’80s science fiction movies.
Wow, remind me never to travel to Saudi Arabia:
“Sorcerer” Faces Imminent Death in Saudi Arabia
Ali Sabat was the host of a popular Lebanese TV show in which he predicted the future and gave advice. He was arrested by religious police on sorcery charges while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in 2008. His lawyer, May el-Khansa, says she has been told Mr Sabat is due to be executed this week … Many Saudi executions are beheadings by the sword in public places.
My grandfather Roger Barr passed away early this morning at the age of 98. He was my mom’s father, and was my last surviving grandparent. He was being cared for by my uncle Steve (his son) and aunt Denice — both medical professionals — and was still sharp and good-humored in his final days. Yesterday […]