In this story of a future India, water is a precious resource. The Jodhra family controls the water supplies for an entire region and is in constant war with the rival Azad family.
The main character is a Jodhra daughter. One night the family palace is attacked by the Azads. Everyone is slain, but the daughter is saved by a nute (neither female or male), who gets her safely away. She grows up among the secretive nutes until she is noticed by the Azad son (the Azad family was also decimated by Jodhra countermeasures during the attack). The Azad son takes her into his palace and says he will keep her until she agrees to marry him.
Each night, he tells her a story. She also tells him stories. After a long period of time, she says she will marry him. An elaborate wedding is planned. When she kisses him, he has an allergic reaction and dies. She is actually heart-broken by the incident but becomes the heir of the combined Jodhra-Azad water kingdom.
This story was pretty good. I liked the idea of water wars in India. The families were surrounded by dozens of robots (including some that were like monkeys).
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
STORY #2: Kyle Meets the River (Ian McDonald, 2006)
This story is set in an India of 2047. Kyle is the son of a U.S. government worker. The U.S. government is working on rebuilding India (a la Iraq), and Kyle and his family live in a secured area that is constantly beset by terrorist attacks.
Kyle befriends an Indian boy named Salim (one of the few allowed on the secure Cantonment). Salim plays a virtual reality game where you can evolve new species and let them run away with their development and growth. Both boys play soccer, but Salim is kicked out after a fight.
The story ends with Kyle sneaking off the base and meeting Salim. Salim takes him to the holy river, where Kyle gets to see real Indian life. But that comes to a crashing halt when a helicopter arrives with soldiers to take him back to the base. He is berated by both his parents, who say they may now have to go back to the States.
The story was okay, not great.
Kyle befriends an Indian boy named Salim (one of the few allowed on the secure Cantonment). Salim plays a virtual reality game where you can evolve new species and let them run away with their development and growth. Both boys play soccer, but Salim is kicked out after a fight.
The story ends with Kyle sneaking off the base and meeting Salim. Salim takes him to the holy river, where Kyle gets to see real Indian life. But that comes to a crashing halt when a helicopter arrives with soldiers to take him back to the base. He is berated by both his parents, who say they may now have to go back to the States.
The story was okay, not great.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
How to Train Your Dragon
Took the kids to see "How to Train Your Dragon" today. It was good. Didn't have that many jokes but had a great story between the boy and the dragon. The flying sequences were amazing. Both boys enjoyed it. This was by the guys that did Lilo & Stitch and you can see the resemblance with the dragon.
After the movie, we went to Barnes & Noble and then Best Buy to look at flat screens for the bed room. Will likely get a 26 inch one for the dresser. It was after 2PM so of course we had to stop by Sonic for fresh fruit slushies. Then groceries, then home. I then spent a couple of hours cleaning the house while Nikkie had coffee with Jacy (is that like having sex, for women??).
We bought some tzatziki sauce at Costco so I made chicken shawarma for dinner. It was good. The tzatziki sauce was very good. We'll be buying it again, I'm sure. The kids colored in their coloring books, then we sat down to watch some of the Mammals segment of Life on Discovery channel. Then we put the kids to bed. Nikki is currently working on laundry. We'll probably go ahead and watch the Lost episode tonight to get it out of the way.
After the movie, we went to Barnes & Noble and then Best Buy to look at flat screens for the bed room. Will likely get a 26 inch one for the dresser. It was after 2PM so of course we had to stop by Sonic for fresh fruit slushies. Then groceries, then home. I then spent a couple of hours cleaning the house while Nikkie had coffee with Jacy (is that like having sex, for women??).
We bought some tzatziki sauce at Costco so I made chicken shawarma for dinner. It was good. The tzatziki sauce was very good. We'll be buying it again, I'm sure. The kids colored in their coloring books, then we sat down to watch some of the Mammals segment of Life on Discovery channel. Then we put the kids to bed. Nikki is currently working on laundry. We'll probably go ahead and watch the Lost episode tonight to get it out of the way.
Evan's birthday and other things
Yesterday started out at the First Baptist church of Raytown. It's a gigantic church. Our tie to this is that Luke goes to the Little Learners preschool there. They had an Easter celebration for the kids. There was a clown and a show (with cheesy God rock music). Then the kids were divvied up to hunt for eggs. To give you a sense of the scale of this operation, 3,000 eggs were available for the infant-3 year old crowd. Each child got 20 eggs. Afterward, they supplied free hot dogs and chips for everyone (even the adults).
After that I got my haircut and then we ran some errands. We got home just in time to unload and then head over to Jacy & Brian's for Evan's 3rd birthday party. We got to visit with Lee and Linda (Brian's parents). Then had Papa Johns pizza (ho-hum). Brian bought this very excellent Boulevard beer that I had never heard of: Boss Tom’s Golden Bock. It's a Maibock-style brew available in April and May. It is shocking that I've never seen this!
Jacy made two ice cream cakes. The definite favorite was the red velvet cake with strawberry ice cream that had a layer of crushed Oreos and fudge. The other was an angelfood cake layered with lime sherbet. Both were quite tasty.
Evan loves cars so his decorations were Cars. He got lots of great presents, including a scooter. The kids got to take a bunch of balloons home.
After that I got my haircut and then we ran some errands. We got home just in time to unload and then head over to Jacy & Brian's for Evan's 3rd birthday party. We got to visit with Lee and Linda (Brian's parents). Then had Papa Johns pizza (ho-hum). Brian bought this very excellent Boulevard beer that I had never heard of: Boss Tom’s Golden Bock. It's a Maibock-style brew available in April and May. It is shocking that I've never seen this!
Jacy made two ice cream cakes. The definite favorite was the red velvet cake with strawberry ice cream that had a layer of crushed Oreos and fudge. The other was an angelfood cake layered with lime sherbet. Both were quite tasty.
Evan loves cars so his decorations were Cars. He got lots of great presents, including a scooter. The kids got to take a bunch of balloons home.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
STORY #1: Sanjeev and Robotwallah (Ian McDonald, 2007)
The author: Ian McDonald, who lives in Ireland, has been writing serious science fiction for decades. He is best known in recent years for writing River of Gods, a book about a future India. He then wrote one about a future Brazil called Brasyl.
The book: Cyberabad Days (2009) is a collection of short stories, all centered in the future India of River of Gods.
The story: Sanjeev is a kid in school when they hear that the robots are coming to put down a rebellion outside their town. The robots do in all their glory and Sanjeev becomes obsessed with them. Shortly thereafter, more rebels come in the night and sow plagues that kill all the town's crops and animals. And so Sanjeev's family moves to another town, which houses a unit of these robot and their pilots, teenaged boys who live like anime rockstars. Sanjeev meets the group when they order pizza from his father's pizza stand. They hit it off and Sanjeev is invited to work with them, cleaning up their residence and running to get them food. Eventually, he is allowed to pilot a robot himself, but then the war ends when the Americans come. The kid pilots, robotwallahs ("wallah" is Indian for someone who is involved in something. So a laundrywallah would be someone that does laundry, etc.), have nothing to do. One of them steals a robot and takes Sanjeev back to his home town, which is still emptied out because of the plagues. The story ends when others cam to take them and the robot away.
The verdict: A great story. I loved the descriptions of the robots, like mecha from some Japanese cartoon. There are different kinds and they have recon bots that free themselves from the main robot and swarm around to gather information. It's all pretty cool. I also liked the description of how the rebels came and sowed the plagues in the town.
The book: Cyberabad Days (2009) is a collection of short stories, all centered in the future India of River of Gods.
The story: Sanjeev is a kid in school when they hear that the robots are coming to put down a rebellion outside their town. The robots do in all their glory and Sanjeev becomes obsessed with them. Shortly thereafter, more rebels come in the night and sow plagues that kill all the town's crops and animals. And so Sanjeev's family moves to another town, which houses a unit of these robot and their pilots, teenaged boys who live like anime rockstars. Sanjeev meets the group when they order pizza from his father's pizza stand. They hit it off and Sanjeev is invited to work with them, cleaning up their residence and running to get them food. Eventually, he is allowed to pilot a robot himself, but then the war ends when the Americans come. The kid pilots, robotwallahs ("wallah" is Indian for someone who is involved in something. So a laundrywallah would be someone that does laundry, etc.), have nothing to do. One of them steals a robot and takes Sanjeev back to his home town, which is still emptied out because of the plagues. The story ends when others cam to take them and the robot away.
The verdict: A great story. I loved the descriptions of the robots, like mecha from some Japanese cartoon. There are different kinds and they have recon bots that free themselves from the main robot and swarm around to gather information. It's all pretty cool. I also liked the description of how the rebels came and sowed the plagues in the town.
Paranormal Activity (2007)
I watched Paranormal Activity last night. I thought it was a pretty effective scary film (though I didn't like the ending much). It's famous for being one of those Cinderella stories. The film was made for $15,000 in 2007 and was seen at a couple of scary film festivals. Someone saw it and loved it and it eventually ended up in Hollywood. According to Wikipedia, Hollywood wanted to scrap the original and do a big budget replacement to show but the guy who created the original convinced them to do some test screenings and those did well. So they released the original and made a ton of money. Wikipedia has the gross being at just under $200 million. A sequel is in the works.
The plot is pretty simple. A young couple live in a house and are haunted by something. The guy, Micah (the names are the names of the real actors), buys a video camera to see if they can capture something on video. In the more effective moments, you can see and hear things happening through the camera when the couple are asleep (a door opening and shutting, Katie getting out of bed and standing over Micah for hours, etc.).
You quickly learn that the hauntings have followed Katie around since she was a child, when she would feel breathing near hear and a shadow standing over her bed. You also learn that her childhood home was burned down and it may have been this thing.
A psychic visits and reveals to them that the hauntings are from a demon, not a ghost. He refers them to a colleague who specializes in demons, but Micah convinces Katie not to call. They can handle it themselves.
As Micah attempts to confront the demon, trying to talk to it with a microphone and bringing a Ouija board home, the hauntings escalate in intensity. Micah and Katie fight a lot, and, as the psychic had warned, the demon feeds off the negative energy.
Towards the end, more dramatic things happen. After hearing some crashing in the hallway, they discover the opening to the attic has been moved. Micah goes up to investigate and discovers a childhood photo of Katie that has been burned (in the house fire from her past). In other episode, Micah sprinkles baby powder along the hallway and they wake up to see non-human footprints leading into their bedroom. They watch the video and can actually see the footprints being made. One night, Katie is dragged out of bed and down the hallway by an invisible presence and during the struggle, as Micah attempts to grab her, she is bitten in the back by the demon.
They have finally had enough and Micah decides they need to leave immediately. However, he discovers Katie in a sleep-like state, holding a cross so hard that her hand is bleeding. He freaks out and burns the cross and the found photo in the fireplace. Later, her tells Katie they are leaving but she is sleeping in the bed and says that she does not want to leave. You realize that the demon has possessed her.
That night, Katie sleep-walks down to the kitchen and then begins to scream. Micah runs down to see what is going on and their is a struggle. A moment later, Katie walks back up into the bedrooms. Before you see her enter the doorway, Micah's body is hurled into the room, knocking over the camera. Katie, her shirt covered in blood, walks into the room and begins to crawl around Micah's body. She then eyes the camera and lunges forward in a growl (didn't like this last bit).
The DVD has an alternate ending, which I didn't watch. In that ending, Katie apparently walks up to the camera with a knife in her hand and then slits her own throat. Wikipedia has another ending where she simply sits on the bed in a daze. Police arrive a few days later to find her still there. While they attempt to talk to her, with a knife still in her hand, a door slams shut and she is shot and killed.
Overall, a pretty effective film. The fact that most of the stuff happens on a video camera while the couple are asleep is pretty scary. And the way it is filmed, on the handheld camera, limits what you can see on film so you can't see what's around the corner. My only beef is that the ending, with Katie possesses and growling like some monster, didn't fit the tone of the rest of the film and seemed pretty cheesy. If I had my choice I would have tried a couple of different tacks. Either no one comes up after the struggle downstairs, but there is just silence and then the camera goes dark. Or Katie walks back upstairs with a knife in her hand, walks up to the camera and then simply turned it off. And I would have avoided the postscript at the end.
The plot is pretty simple. A young couple live in a house and are haunted by something. The guy, Micah (the names are the names of the real actors), buys a video camera to see if they can capture something on video. In the more effective moments, you can see and hear things happening through the camera when the couple are asleep (a door opening and shutting, Katie getting out of bed and standing over Micah for hours, etc.).
You quickly learn that the hauntings have followed Katie around since she was a child, when she would feel breathing near hear and a shadow standing over her bed. You also learn that her childhood home was burned down and it may have been this thing.
A psychic visits and reveals to them that the hauntings are from a demon, not a ghost. He refers them to a colleague who specializes in demons, but Micah convinces Katie not to call. They can handle it themselves.
As Micah attempts to confront the demon, trying to talk to it with a microphone and bringing a Ouija board home, the hauntings escalate in intensity. Micah and Katie fight a lot, and, as the psychic had warned, the demon feeds off the negative energy.
Towards the end, more dramatic things happen. After hearing some crashing in the hallway, they discover the opening to the attic has been moved. Micah goes up to investigate and discovers a childhood photo of Katie that has been burned (in the house fire from her past). In other episode, Micah sprinkles baby powder along the hallway and they wake up to see non-human footprints leading into their bedroom. They watch the video and can actually see the footprints being made. One night, Katie is dragged out of bed and down the hallway by an invisible presence and during the struggle, as Micah attempts to grab her, she is bitten in the back by the demon.
They have finally had enough and Micah decides they need to leave immediately. However, he discovers Katie in a sleep-like state, holding a cross so hard that her hand is bleeding. He freaks out and burns the cross and the found photo in the fireplace. Later, her tells Katie they are leaving but she is sleeping in the bed and says that she does not want to leave. You realize that the demon has possessed her.
That night, Katie sleep-walks down to the kitchen and then begins to scream. Micah runs down to see what is going on and their is a struggle. A moment later, Katie walks back up into the bedrooms. Before you see her enter the doorway, Micah's body is hurled into the room, knocking over the camera. Katie, her shirt covered in blood, walks into the room and begins to crawl around Micah's body. She then eyes the camera and lunges forward in a growl (didn't like this last bit).
The DVD has an alternate ending, which I didn't watch. In that ending, Katie apparently walks up to the camera with a knife in her hand and then slits her own throat. Wikipedia has another ending where she simply sits on the bed in a daze. Police arrive a few days later to find her still there. While they attempt to talk to her, with a knife still in her hand, a door slams shut and she is shot and killed.
Overall, a pretty effective film. The fact that most of the stuff happens on a video camera while the couple are asleep is pretty scary. And the way it is filmed, on the handheld camera, limits what you can see on film so you can't see what's around the corner. My only beef is that the ending, with Katie possesses and growling like some monster, didn't fit the tone of the rest of the film and seemed pretty cheesy. If I had my choice I would have tried a couple of different tacks. Either no one comes up after the struggle downstairs, but there is just silence and then the camera goes dark. Or Katie walks back upstairs with a knife in her hand, walks up to the camera and then simply turned it off. And I would have avoided the postscript at the end.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Luke's spring program
So last night, we attended Luke's spring program for Little Learners at the First Baptist church in Raytown. We've done this before with Aidan so we were excited to see what Luke would do. Luke is quite funny. Loud and boisterous and completely fearless most times. But then he can get quite shy and quiet and fearful.
And so it was this night. He teared up when we left him with his teachers to go get our seats. They started out with a slideshow that lasted only two songs so that was good. Then the classes were marched out to recite a bible verse and sing a song. Luke's class was 4th and they did some song called "Finger Poppin."
At the end of the show, all the kids got up on stage and sang "I am your God." Luke was in the front row, which helped, but some old guy kept raising his arm throughout the song. I turned the camera off too soon as Luke and one of the little girls started kissing each other after the song was over.
After the program we took the boys to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream. Aidan and I had Reeses Peanut Butter Cups ice cream and Luke had strawberry ice cream. Nikki had some silly chocolate ice cream.
And so it was this night. He teared up when we left him with his teachers to go get our seats. They started out with a slideshow that lasted only two songs so that was good. Then the classes were marched out to recite a bible verse and sing a song. Luke's class was 4th and they did some song called "Finger Poppin."
At the end of the show, all the kids got up on stage and sang "I am your God." Luke was in the front row, which helped, but some old guy kept raising his arm throughout the song. I turned the camera off too soon as Luke and one of the little girls started kissing each other after the song was over.
After the program we took the boys to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream. Aidan and I had Reeses Peanut Butter Cups ice cream and Luke had strawberry ice cream. Nikki had some silly chocolate ice cream.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
