Sometime in the middle of reading this, you are going to think to yourself, "This just sounds like some sort of stupid Harry Potter fan fiction." When you think that, please keep reading. I promise - it is all worth it, and the idea is an incredibly sound one (fraught with copyright problems, of course). Please, whatever you do, do not turn away, especially if you are an incredibly talented writer.
Here's how it starts: the story focuses on a Harry Potter super nerd, one that knows the books front to back and how it is all connected. This character could be a male, but would be better suited as a female, because we need for strong female protagonists. For the sake of simplicity, however, I will name this person Jason.
Jason wakes up one morning to find that he has left his bed behind and somehow ended up lying next to a lake. More specifically, Jason is lying next to the lake on the Hogwarts grounds. He is wearing wizard robes and finds a wand in his pocket. Just as he attempts to get his bearings, several Hogwarts teachers run outside to figure out where this man came from and why he thinks he has transported from the "real world" into "the world of Harry Potter." Naturally, the only one that believes his story is Dumbledore.
Upon trying to bring Jason back into the muggle world, they find that some sort of magic has bound him within the Hogwarts grounds. He can pass into Hogsmeade, and into parts of the Forbidden Forest (although maybe we'll find that out later), but overall, Jason is trapped. He doesn't really mind being trapped - he soon finds enjoyment in teaching himself magic while the students at Hogwarts are away for the summer holidays. Some of the teachers help (Flitwick, McGonagall), but some steer clear (Snape ... duh).
At the end of August, a house elf (let's call him Snorky) shows up to tell Jason that he has been brought into this world to help keep the timeline consistent with how it has been told. A force is at play that wishes to change the timeline, wishes to make the world come crumbling down, and Jason is the only one that can keep it the same, given his knowledge of how things ought to play out. This seems odd to Jason, considering he has probably already completely messed with the timeline by talking to the Hogwarts teachers and wandering around the castle doing magic, but he more or less accepts this mission because it's the only explanation he has received for why he is there. He promises to keep people in the castle at a distance and not let them know what he is doing.
Harry Potter shows up at Hogwarts, and Jason keeps his distance, watching how things play out. Dumbledore asks him to help manage the students while he is trapped there, and Jason agrees. He quickly finds a small group of Ravenclaw first years that seem to take to his personality, and he ends up helping them practice their magic and do their homework, learning along with them but always catching on much more quickly, having spent so much time learning things over the summer. He periodically comes into contact with Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, but he keeps it short. He knows they are trying to figure things out about the Sorcerer's Stone and he wants to let them do so on their own, without interference.
Well, Jason doesn't interfere, but odd things start happening that start to derail the timeline. Quirrell almost doesn't succeed in letting the troll in on Halloween, so Jason needs to do it so that Harry and Ron finally befriend Hermione. Malfoy doesn't challenge Harry to a midnight duel so Jason needs to find a way to get the three of them to discover Fluffy. Jason needs to follow Harry into the Forbidden Forest to make sure things go according to plan there, and later, Jason gets wind of a plot to keep Dumbledore away from Hogwarts on the night the three of them go down the trapdoor. He then needs to make sure Dumbledore returns to save Harry, and after that mess gets taken care of, Dumbledore then questions Jason about what he knows and what he is doing, forcing Jason to keep his mission on the down-low but insist that Dumbledore trust him.
By the way, readers: this is the first of seven books that follow Jason in his mission to keep the storyline unaltered.
I haven't thought the details of the next one out yet, but somewhere along the line, he meets Dobby and begins to wonder more about what motivates Snorky in his mission to keep the timeline unaltered. Jason starts getting wind of the force that is trying to derail the timeline, discovering parts of the castle that Harry doesn't discover in the books, all while keeping Harry, Ron and Hermione on their mission to catch the Heir of Slytherin. It slowly begins to build on how and why things are happening the way they are without giving too much away.
The third book is where things get real, because Jason has started to care about these three and knows what he must do: he needs to let Wormtail escape so he can return to Voldemort and bring him back to power. At some point in the book, he lets something happen that shouldn't and pays for it later when Snorky tells him he is going to be "punished" for not trying to fix things. Jason does end up being accused of letting Sirius Black into the castle (Snorky somehow makes this happen) and needs to regain the trust of those around him, all while trying to fix the mistake he made early on.
The fourth book is when he finally derails things in a significant way. He knows Harry will come back alive from the graveyard at the end of the story, but throughout the book, feels compelled to help Cedric survive the encounter. Knowing, though, that Snorky is keeping a closer eye on him than before, he needs to put a complicated plan in action to make it look like he hasn't changed anything, and that this change was completely out of his control. He slowly talks to Cedric and plants ideas in his head, making sure that he does not get to the Triwizard Cup even if he wants to do so. Jason succeeds - Cedric survives, Snorky suspects that he did it on purpose but watches him try to keep things consistent all the while, and Voldemort still comes back to power. Dumbledore is getting very curious about what Jason is up to at this point and hints at the fact that he has figured out that Jason kept Cedric alive.
Jason keeps a close eye on the timeline in the fifth book, knowing he has altered it significantly. He realizes quickly that Harry will not have the same relationship with Cho Chang and attempts to break her and Cedric up. Cedric has graduated from Hogwarts, so this isn't as tough as he thinks it is, but it is still difficult, especially since the DA isn't taking off as well as he thought it might. Cho doesn't get interested in it, and that doesn't seem to give Harry the motivation he needs. This is when things begin to fall apart for Jason keeping the timeline accurate - he ends up changing a whole bunch of things throughout the story to keep Harry on track to end up in the department of mysteries at the end, but because the DA is not as effective, the students are not as well prepared. Jason secretly follows the students when they head off to the ministry, hoping to help them out. He is, however, unable to help them out from the shadows, must reveal himself, and then cannot keep them on track.
Jason, if you remember, cannot leave the Hogwarts grounds, but manages to do so here. He doesn't even think about it until later, when talking with a rather angry Dumbledore.
Several things happen now: knowing that Sirius is going to die, Jason makes the mistake of trying to save him. In his haste to help out in that regard, Ron dies. Yes, you heard it - Ron Weasley dies. Harry's best friend gets killed in the action, and Jason knows that he has irreparably altered everything that follows. They all escape (after Dumbledore has his epic battle with Voldemort), but Dumbledore has had enough afterwards. After his talk with Harry, he calls Jason into his office and demands an explanation, cursing himself for not getting involved in Jason's mission sooner. Jason comes clean, and the book ends with an argument with Snorky. Jason tells Snorky that he will simply try and stop Voldemort, but Snorky hints that he still must not alter the timeline any further. It is then that Jason realizes that Snorky is in charge of whether or not he leaves Hogwarts, when Snorky lets slip that he is the one that let Jason leave and go to the ministry. Racked with guilt, Jason sends Snorky away, lost in his misery and he attempts to figure out hat to do next - work with Dumbledore or cooperate with Snorky.
The sixth book begins with Jason seeing things play out predictably - Voldemort is out in the open, the ministry axes Fudge and brings in Scrimgeour (who still wants Harry as the poster child for the ministry), and the school year seems ready to begin. The big difference - Harry spends the remainder of the summer after recruiting Slughorn with Sirius because, finally, he has been cleared of all charges. He still needs to go back to Privet Drive once more - Dumbledore insists - but he sees more of Sirius and gets his guidance. They can relate to each other on another level now - both of them have lost their best friend and need to work through it, although Harry must work through it while learning how to kill Voldemort.
Jason is still grappling with how much he should change - Snorky insists that many things must remain the same or else Voldemort will win the battle. Jason starts to doubt Snorky at this time, knowing that working with Dumbledore is the best move. He opts to be rather distant to both of them, however, telling Snorky and Dumbledore only what they need to know to go forward. Both put immense pressure on him to do what the other does not wish them to do, but Jason starts to forge his own path - one that involves helping destroy the horcruxes to avoid any more unnecessary loss of life.
The force that was once trying to derail Jason has long since stopped what it was doing, something Jason really only truly notices at this stage of the game. The force returns, however, when he begins hunting for the Room of Requirement (which he oddly cannot find) so that he can destroy the diadem and make it so that Harry and Hermione do not need to return there later. Late in the story, when Dumbledore is getting ready to take Harry with him to the cave by the ocean (no, Jason still hasn't helped out there because he knows it's a path that will eventually lead them to the correct horcrux), Dumbledore asks Jason one more time to confide in him details about the future, if they can save lives. In a moment of weakness, Jason simply tells Dumbledore not to return to Hogwarts, and to keep himself and Harry safe until the school year has ended.
This leaves Jason (still unable to locate the diadem) to help defend the castle, which he can do now. He has spent every summer training and learning magic, practicing and making sure he can combat fully-grown wizards. And he does this well, along with the Order and the DA. Unfortunately, Dumbledore returns with Harry, as he was supposed to do, and still gets killed. Jason feels responsible for not preventing this and tells Snorky he will no longer work to keep the timeline normal. He will simply work to help Harry and Hermione stop Voldemort by finding the diadem and help keep order at Hogwarts. Snorky laughs at this, knowing that he cannot possibly work from the shadows with what will happen to Hogwarts in the seventh book. Unable to figure out Snorky's motivation, he prepares to be trapped at Hogwarts with the changing of the guard, wondering what Snape will do with him.
Unbeknownst to Jason, Dumbledore has already told Snape about Jason, so Snape is ready to keep him safe. He does it throughout the seventh book very carefully, only helping when he can get away with it and never openly revealing his motivations to Jason. Halfway through the book, things change quickly: the Carrows try to kill Jason, Snorky defends him and falls in the battle, and the DA comes together to defeat the Carrows and help Jason get the diadem. This leaves Jason free to leave the Hogwarts grounds, even free to maybe go home to his own world if he wants to figure it out. He opts to find Harry and Hermione and help them find the remaining Horcruxes, now able to tell them whatever they need to know.
That's when the force that had once tried to derail him, the same one that tried to defend the diadem, finally shows itself. It says it can get Jason home to his own world, but only if he chooses to leave immediately. After some thought, Jason declines, knowing he has made it nearly impossible for Harry and Hermione to kill Voldemort on their own. Losing his only chance to get home, he seeks out Harry and Hermione to help them out.
And help them he does - they manage to destroy every horcrux except for Voldemort himself and the one inside Harry. This is when things get real, because the force that brought him to this world is the same one that tried to derail him for so long - it's the horcrux inside Harry. This horcrux has grown so powerful it managed to pull Jason out of the real world and into the story in the hopes of having him alter the story line and allow Voldemort to succeed. However, Snorky got to Jason before he could do any irreparable damage. The force, the horcrux, does not know to whom Snorky reported, but Jason manages to help get Harry to Voldemort for Voldemort to kill him (and kill the horcrux) despite the work of the mysterious force.
But then the worst happens: Voldemort refuses to kill Harry, finding out from this force that Harry is a horcrux. So Jason must do it, prompting Voldemort to kill Jason. Jason then visits a type of place like Harry does, greeted by none other than Dumbledore himself. This version of Dumbledore has been dead a long time - he died in the original, unaltered storyline and, sensing the awareness of the part of Voldemort within Harry, decides to communicate with a house elf to have Jason fight to keep the storyline intact. He is only able to communicate with this elf once, which explains why the elf became so misguided later on and insisted on keeping the storyline intact after it had become irreparably harmed. Jason has the option of going home to his world or helping Harry fight and defeat Voldemort, because Harry will wake up alone with Death Eaters. Jason, after a painful internal struggle, decides to help Harry.
He ends up helping Harry defeat Voldemort (I haven't worked out whether this is again because of the Elder Wand or not), and the world is saved. Jason is trapped but makes the most of it, marrying another wizard in the epilogue. Harry marries Hermione (to please an incredibly vocal part of the Harry Potter fanbase), the Weasleys are a god-family to their kids, and they all live happily ever after.
Alright, so this all seems kind of strange, but really, a horcrux becoming so powerful it can breach the book and come into the real world? That is probably one of my best ideas ever.
There are still a lot of details to hash out - the whole Deathly Hallows business, how Harry and Hermione continue without Ron, how the rest of the castle perceives and interacts with Jason - but really, this could be amazing. I know there must be some writer out there ready to dedicate the next decade of his or her life filling in the details of this epic saga. I just hope that person somehow stumbles across this blog.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Saturday, September 12, 2015
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Nerdy Month in Review: August 2015
This August was perhaps the craziest month ever in my life. Between taking care of two kids, preparing for the school year, and taking the family out to Chicago and back, I had little time for my usual nerdy endeavors. I did fit a few things in, though, and I'll sum them up here.
TV
I cannot remember the last time the little lady and I watched Avengers, but the last episode we saw was from the aftermath of the Skull invasion. It was a really fun episode in which we are introduced to Spiderman and the "web" of lies concocted by J. Jonah Jameson at his expense. Spiderman and Captain America were able to relate for most of the episode, since most of the world has no idea that Captain America was being impersonated by a Skull and did not actually want the entire population of the Earth to bow down to them. The headline for The Daily Bugle at the end of the episode, though, as read by Spiderman, really put the episode over the top: "Captain America defeats Spiderman and the Serpent Society!?!?" Comic gold.
I have continued to watch Dexter, but I am still on season 2. Getting in Dexter is tough because there are two young 'uns that cannot watch it, or even walk through the same room while I watch it. So, I need to tuck myself into our breakfast nook in the kitchen with my headphones and laptop while they are playing outside or off doing something else. I had forgotten how great the relationship between Dexter and Doakes is in that season - the writers really did a great job of building up that tension throughout the entire season. I am about to watch the episode in which (spoiler alert!) Doakes ends up discovering Dexter for what he really is, and the episode that follows that is, if I remember correctly, one of the best. I am looking forward to it, but not looking forward to seeing more of Lila at the end of the season.
Season 2 is not my favorite season, but seasons 3 through 5 mark what I believe is the best ark in the entire series, and I bet I'll get some writing in on that.
Video Games
Remember last time, when I said I would play more Legend of Zelda, and more Mario, and more games in general? Yeah, no.
The only game I play regularly is Candy Crush Saga because it's the only game I have time to play, in between being a dad. It's a fun game, and only recently have I found that there is actually a little bit of skill required to get the three star rank for which I always aim. I mean, you don't need much skill - it's still mostly luck - but I have started to develop strategy for levels instead of just mindlessly playing it and hoping for some of the good pieces.
I did sit down and play a depressingly bad game called Chicken Shoot. Seriously, it's bad, and racist, and not well tested, and racist. I would say it's so bad it's good, but it's also racist. Like, really racist, and pointless. I think I might start a series of posts titled "Game You Never Knew Existed," and Chicken Shoot will face my wrath in a much more extended entry, perhaps with some video!
Movies
I spent a rather lengthy blog post on it, so I won't elaborate here, but we did watch Return of the Jedi with the little lady. Please reference my incredibly long rant about the movie from the previous blog post if you are curious as to how I feel about the experience.
We have also been watching the Marvel movies with the little lady, making sure to have good conversations about the violence in them so that we continue to be good parents as well. We watched Iron Man, which continues to age better than I thought it might. Robert Downey Jr. has the role down so well from the get-go that I can't help but feel like it was written for him in the first place. I also constantly forget that Terrence Howard played Rhodes in the first movie. I always get annoyed at switched like that in the middle of a franchise, but really, Don Cheadle has way more fun being a superhero than Howard would have had.
We also watched The Incredible Hulk, the forgotten Marvel movie that, as far as I know, remains canon even though most people pretend like it never happened. I believe there is a Marvel One-Shot that takes care of the loose ends (the fate of Abomination, the tease about The Leader), but I haven't read much because I want to see it, but I also haven't gotten a chance to see it. They should just put them all out on one DVD, or put them on Netflix.
Anyway, that movie isn't great, but it isn't bad. The humor seems ill-placed in it for some reason that I cannot quite identify, even though I feel like each moment succeeds in and of itself. I am glad Edward Norton was recast - Mark Ruffalo plays The Hulk perfectly, with his mannerisms and attitude. I am looking forward to the return of General Ross in Captain America: Civil War - he seemed like such a caricature in this movie that it wasted William Hurt's talents. I hope he's got some good things to work with in the new film.
Books
Reading is tough, since it takes me considerable mental energy to do it and do it well. I enjoy reading, though, and have managed to work my way through The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and am almost done (I think) with The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. I really hate that there is hardly any narrative thread - I like stories that are clever, not clever (and, I will admit, often humorous) little tidbits that are attempted to be thrown together into a story. It's the same sort of problem I had with Stephen King's It - make a collection of short stories and lose the need to connect it all, since the connection kind of sucks. I am enjoying the books, to a certain extent, but after reading It and Faithful and now this, I am really longing for a story.
(Hopefully) Coming Up in September...
Well, there will be more Dexter, damn it. I will have to wait until at least the little one goes to bed, and even then still sit somewhere all on my own to get through it without interruption, but it will happen. I think getting all of the way through season 3 is an overly-ambitious goal, but getting into season 3 should be doable.
The little lady and I should also continue getting through Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. She'll want to do it - I just need to remember to remind her.
I will read more - I have consistently read every night before going to sleep for about a week and it will continue. I hope to start Stephen King's Joyland by the end of the month.
Video games? Look for a post that describes a regular Twitch playing time, hopefully every Saturday morning (since it's the only uninterrupted time I can get the TV). Also, as I mentioned, I want to start the new series of posts called Games You Never Knew Existed. I hope I can make it happen, at least once a month, as well as continue going through My Collection of Unfinished Games.
TV
I cannot remember the last time the little lady and I watched Avengers, but the last episode we saw was from the aftermath of the Skull invasion. It was a really fun episode in which we are introduced to Spiderman and the "web" of lies concocted by J. Jonah Jameson at his expense. Spiderman and Captain America were able to relate for most of the episode, since most of the world has no idea that Captain America was being impersonated by a Skull and did not actually want the entire population of the Earth to bow down to them. The headline for The Daily Bugle at the end of the episode, though, as read by Spiderman, really put the episode over the top: "Captain America defeats Spiderman and the Serpent Society!?!?" Comic gold.
I have continued to watch Dexter, but I am still on season 2. Getting in Dexter is tough because there are two young 'uns that cannot watch it, or even walk through the same room while I watch it. So, I need to tuck myself into our breakfast nook in the kitchen with my headphones and laptop while they are playing outside or off doing something else. I had forgotten how great the relationship between Dexter and Doakes is in that season - the writers really did a great job of building up that tension throughout the entire season. I am about to watch the episode in which (spoiler alert!) Doakes ends up discovering Dexter for what he really is, and the episode that follows that is, if I remember correctly, one of the best. I am looking forward to it, but not looking forward to seeing more of Lila at the end of the season.
Season 2 is not my favorite season, but seasons 3 through 5 mark what I believe is the best ark in the entire series, and I bet I'll get some writing in on that.
Video Games
Remember last time, when I said I would play more Legend of Zelda, and more Mario, and more games in general? Yeah, no.
The only game I play regularly is Candy Crush Saga because it's the only game I have time to play, in between being a dad. It's a fun game, and only recently have I found that there is actually a little bit of skill required to get the three star rank for which I always aim. I mean, you don't need much skill - it's still mostly luck - but I have started to develop strategy for levels instead of just mindlessly playing it and hoping for some of the good pieces.
I did sit down and play a depressingly bad game called Chicken Shoot. Seriously, it's bad, and racist, and not well tested, and racist. I would say it's so bad it's good, but it's also racist. Like, really racist, and pointless. I think I might start a series of posts titled "Game You Never Knew Existed," and Chicken Shoot will face my wrath in a much more extended entry, perhaps with some video!
Movies
I spent a rather lengthy blog post on it, so I won't elaborate here, but we did watch Return of the Jedi with the little lady. Please reference my incredibly long rant about the movie from the previous blog post if you are curious as to how I feel about the experience.
We have also been watching the Marvel movies with the little lady, making sure to have good conversations about the violence in them so that we continue to be good parents as well. We watched Iron Man, which continues to age better than I thought it might. Robert Downey Jr. has the role down so well from the get-go that I can't help but feel like it was written for him in the first place. I also constantly forget that Terrence Howard played Rhodes in the first movie. I always get annoyed at switched like that in the middle of a franchise, but really, Don Cheadle has way more fun being a superhero than Howard would have had.
We also watched The Incredible Hulk, the forgotten Marvel movie that, as far as I know, remains canon even though most people pretend like it never happened. I believe there is a Marvel One-Shot that takes care of the loose ends (the fate of Abomination, the tease about The Leader), but I haven't read much because I want to see it, but I also haven't gotten a chance to see it. They should just put them all out on one DVD, or put them on Netflix.
Anyway, that movie isn't great, but it isn't bad. The humor seems ill-placed in it for some reason that I cannot quite identify, even though I feel like each moment succeeds in and of itself. I am glad Edward Norton was recast - Mark Ruffalo plays The Hulk perfectly, with his mannerisms and attitude. I am looking forward to the return of General Ross in Captain America: Civil War - he seemed like such a caricature in this movie that it wasted William Hurt's talents. I hope he's got some good things to work with in the new film.
Books
Reading is tough, since it takes me considerable mental energy to do it and do it well. I enjoy reading, though, and have managed to work my way through The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and am almost done (I think) with The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. I really hate that there is hardly any narrative thread - I like stories that are clever, not clever (and, I will admit, often humorous) little tidbits that are attempted to be thrown together into a story. It's the same sort of problem I had with Stephen King's It - make a collection of short stories and lose the need to connect it all, since the connection kind of sucks. I am enjoying the books, to a certain extent, but after reading It and Faithful and now this, I am really longing for a story.
(Hopefully) Coming Up in September...
Well, there will be more Dexter, damn it. I will have to wait until at least the little one goes to bed, and even then still sit somewhere all on my own to get through it without interruption, but it will happen. I think getting all of the way through season 3 is an overly-ambitious goal, but getting into season 3 should be doable.
The little lady and I should also continue getting through Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. She'll want to do it - I just need to remember to remind her.
I will read more - I have consistently read every night before going to sleep for about a week and it will continue. I hope to start Stephen King's Joyland by the end of the month.
Video games? Look for a post that describes a regular Twitch playing time, hopefully every Saturday morning (since it's the only uninterrupted time I can get the TV). Also, as I mentioned, I want to start the new series of posts called Games You Never Knew Existed. I hope I can make it happen, at least once a month, as well as continue going through My Collection of Unfinished Games.
Saturday, August 29, 2015
My Separation Anxiety from Nerdiness
This August has been, without a doubt, the craziest August I have ever experienced, as well as one of the craziest months I have ever experienced. Whether I was preparing for the school year (which is now in full-swing), taking care of kids (which has only gotten more exhausting, if possible, as the school year has begun), or driving the family out to Chicago for vacation (I think I came back more tired than when I left), I have been incredibly busy. I have had fun, no doubt, because I am continually thankful that I am surrounded by truly wonderful people. I have found so much of these experiences rewarding, watching the girls continue to grow and being able to share in their happiness and new experiences. I am felt pride at all of the hard work I have been putting in to so many things. There's been positive and negative, of course, but overall, it's been worth it.
I just haven't been able to be a nerd.
Despite the general positivity of my life, I still wish I had time for my video games, my movies, my TV shows and my books. I find myself looking longingly at the abandoned video game consoles that surround my TV which, of course, tends to already be in use when I walk in the room. I stare at my DVD collection, with Dexter staring back, wishing that I had more than 20 minutes to myself at any given time. I read nerdy news at io9 and Kotaku and realize they are discussing movies and shows that I said ages ago I would watch and experience but have been unable to do so. I brought a book with me on vacation - The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide - and read none of it while I was away. None of it.
I had a conversation with a colleague today about the new Star Wars movie. He asked me if I had been reading any of the news coming out about it. Nope.
I looked at movie times at theaters while on vacation and found somewhere Ant-Man was still playing. I thought, "Hey, maybe my wife and I will have some time to go and see it!" Nope.
I got some major inspiration for one of the stories I had been writing, one that involves warring superheroes in an urban environment. I was driving some mindless stretch of highway between Maine and Illinois when I finally figured out where to take the story next. I thought I might have some time to work on it. Nope.
My students asked me if I had spent any time on Twitch this summer, broadcasting my video game prowess for the world to admire. Nope.
I appear to have opened up the flood gates - the bitterness has poured forth for my mass of readers (and by mass, I mean three or four, of course) to consume and bathe in. The space inside me reserved for my nerdy endeavors has been emptied of all that once filled it, cleared of all of the wonderful characters and creatures that help sustain me through many of life's difficulties. Mario's voice feels foreign, the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. haven't led me along the periphery of the Marvel Universe in months, and my hands, my glorious gaming hands, haven't felt the gentle touch of a controller for some inhuman, horrible amount of time. "How can he live?" many of you might ask. And I might respond, "I know not how I continue along my path, how I sustain myself without the love of that most tempting of mistresses, the universe of nerdiness."
I am, of course, being just a tad melodramatic. I know exactly how I have sustained myself - I have the love of my beautiful, supportive and talented wife. I have two foster daughters depending on me to help get them through what is easily going to be the hardest part of their lives. I have wonderful family and friends whose company I enjoy quite regularly. I have a job that, despite my frustrations with it at times, feels rewarding in the end. I have a lot of things going for me, and I let them keep me going. I don't "need" my nerdy interests to live - I've got the things in life that I've always wanted.
That doesn't mean I am going to tolerate a complete absence of my nerdy interests - we all need our hobbies to sustain us when other things are stressful or difficult. For that reason, I actually managed to watch an episode of Dexter this evening. Yeah, you heard that right - I watched something! I was quite pleased that I could continue on my quest to rate every episode of Dexter (although being just a little over halfway through season 2 is disheartening). So, there is hope that I can still be a nerd, even if it isn't quite to the same extent as before.
So, as I go to bed (I might be able to read a chapter before sleeping - success!), I am going to do what I have been doing to get through the busiest time in my life - I am going to think about the people and things in my life that make me happy, thank some higher power in which I do not actually believe for all of these wonderful people and things in my life, and spend some of my thoughts on the things I plan on doing when I find myself with time to burn. Those things are one of two things: either I will spend some time with my wife (always a priority), or I'll delve into my long mental list of nerdy things that help me unearth a part of me I find very valuable and reassuring. And yes, even if I am screaming at Super Mario 3D World, or grumbling about a ridiculous side story in Dexter, or trying to figure out how much it bothers me that The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide doesn't really have a consistent plot-thread, I still find myself reassured that I am doing something that brings my mind back to a good place.
I just haven't been able to be a nerd.
Despite the general positivity of my life, I still wish I had time for my video games, my movies, my TV shows and my books. I find myself looking longingly at the abandoned video game consoles that surround my TV which, of course, tends to already be in use when I walk in the room. I stare at my DVD collection, with Dexter staring back, wishing that I had more than 20 minutes to myself at any given time. I read nerdy news at io9 and Kotaku and realize they are discussing movies and shows that I said ages ago I would watch and experience but have been unable to do so. I brought a book with me on vacation - The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide - and read none of it while I was away. None of it.
I had a conversation with a colleague today about the new Star Wars movie. He asked me if I had been reading any of the news coming out about it. Nope.
I looked at movie times at theaters while on vacation and found somewhere Ant-Man was still playing. I thought, "Hey, maybe my wife and I will have some time to go and see it!" Nope.
I got some major inspiration for one of the stories I had been writing, one that involves warring superheroes in an urban environment. I was driving some mindless stretch of highway between Maine and Illinois when I finally figured out where to take the story next. I thought I might have some time to work on it. Nope.
My students asked me if I had spent any time on Twitch this summer, broadcasting my video game prowess for the world to admire. Nope.
I appear to have opened up the flood gates - the bitterness has poured forth for my mass of readers (and by mass, I mean three or four, of course) to consume and bathe in. The space inside me reserved for my nerdy endeavors has been emptied of all that once filled it, cleared of all of the wonderful characters and creatures that help sustain me through many of life's difficulties. Mario's voice feels foreign, the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. haven't led me along the periphery of the Marvel Universe in months, and my hands, my glorious gaming hands, haven't felt the gentle touch of a controller for some inhuman, horrible amount of time. "How can he live?" many of you might ask. And I might respond, "I know not how I continue along my path, how I sustain myself without the love of that most tempting of mistresses, the universe of nerdiness."
I am, of course, being just a tad melodramatic. I know exactly how I have sustained myself - I have the love of my beautiful, supportive and talented wife. I have two foster daughters depending on me to help get them through what is easily going to be the hardest part of their lives. I have wonderful family and friends whose company I enjoy quite regularly. I have a job that, despite my frustrations with it at times, feels rewarding in the end. I have a lot of things going for me, and I let them keep me going. I don't "need" my nerdy interests to live - I've got the things in life that I've always wanted.
That doesn't mean I am going to tolerate a complete absence of my nerdy interests - we all need our hobbies to sustain us when other things are stressful or difficult. For that reason, I actually managed to watch an episode of Dexter this evening. Yeah, you heard that right - I watched something! I was quite pleased that I could continue on my quest to rate every episode of Dexter (although being just a little over halfway through season 2 is disheartening). So, there is hope that I can still be a nerd, even if it isn't quite to the same extent as before.
So, as I go to bed (I might be able to read a chapter before sleeping - success!), I am going to do what I have been doing to get through the busiest time in my life - I am going to think about the people and things in my life that make me happy, thank some higher power in which I do not actually believe for all of these wonderful people and things in my life, and spend some of my thoughts on the things I plan on doing when I find myself with time to burn. Those things are one of two things: either I will spend some time with my wife (always a priority), or I'll delve into my long mental list of nerdy things that help me unearth a part of me I find very valuable and reassuring. And yes, even if I am screaming at Super Mario 3D World, or grumbling about a ridiculous side story in Dexter, or trying to figure out how much it bothers me that The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide doesn't really have a consistent plot-thread, I still find myself reassured that I am doing something that brings my mind back to a good place.
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Nerdy Month in Review: July 2015
On the first of every month, I will recap my nerdy endeavors over the course of the previous month.
July was a hectic month from a non-nerdy standpoint, helping our little lady get through having her tonsils out and adjusting to another foster child in the house. We've also had some pesky visitors in the form of lice and mice, so I have been busy and will continue to be busy. Here is what I did manage to get in, though:
TV
The Little Lady and I have been working through Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. As of today, we have gotten about 10 episodes into season 2. We've witnessed the Avengers tackle Loki and his invasion of Asgard, the Kree, and right now, the Skrull invasion. The cartoon is epic, far more than the movies ever will be, so for anyone that wants to get into the Marvel universe, this is an excellent place to start (others might suggest the comics, naturally, but if you are like me and comics aren't your thing, then check out the cartoon). I wish they worked harder to get more female superheroes into the mix - we've recently been introduced to Ms. Marvel, a strong female superhero, and Wasp has been there since the beginning, but she fits too many ditzy female stereotypes to really count as a solid female superhero. The comic relief is consistently good, and the series does a good job of recalling intertwining storylines that began at the beginning of the series. Despite the complexity of the storylines, The Little Lady has had no problems getting what's going on until recently, when she got thoroughly confused on who was a Skrull and who was not.
In other TV nerdiness, Umberto MacJay and I are attempting to watch every season of Dexter and rank each and every episode. We spent one glorious afternoon discussing our rating mechanisms and how we are going to rank each episode and present it to all of you wonderful readers. The entire list will probably be available on this blog sometime in the Fall, but don't hold us too closely to that - this is a significant undertaking, and I myself am only about halfway through season 2. I have seen every season except for the final season, which fans were not crazy about, but I am going to withhold judgement until I see it for myself.
Video Games
Where to begin here? I have been playing a wide variety of games over the course of the month, mainly because whenever I finally get time to sit down and play one, it's been so long since I have actually played anything. As a result, I've done mostly gaming without any semblance of a story - Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. I already wrote at length about Super Mario 3D World and will spare you anymore details here (no, I have not yet beaten that STUPID OBNOXIOUS RIDICULOUS final level). Mario Kart 8 continues to be a challenge with the addition of 200cc, a ridiculously fast romp through the levels that forces you to change your entire racing strategy. It's like playing a brand new game after being so accustomed to 150cc and the Mirror tracks. I am still missing a 3-star, gold trophy on one of the Mirror tracks, and got 2 stars on one of them (I HATE not getting 3 stars - I usually quit as soon as I don't get first in a race as a result). But, I have enjoyed trying 200cc and silently cursing Nintendo for forcing me to change the strategy that I used over the course of an entire 8-game series.
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is out and about again in my house because I purchased all of the DLC. Ryu has been a fun addition, and I have enjoyed whipping out all of my old Street Fighter moves when I use him (although really, I usually fall back on using the B button to use all of the special moves to ensure my victory). I wish they had added more locations in the new DLC - I miss the stages in Brawl and Melee so much, the newer versions haven't quite lived up to those - but overall, the game is still a blast to play in a living room full of people.
I spent a lot of the beginning of the month playing The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. It's easily one of the strongest entries in the Zelda franchise, and perhaps, at the moment at least, is my favorite of the overhead, 2D Zelda titles (not that it is really 2D, with its gorgeous 3D visuals). I am super glad they ditched the requirement of using the touch screen to control Link. I never finished Phantom Hourglass as a result - my hand would get cramped up eventually, and I always ended up doing things I didn't want to do eventually, because of the odd controls. A Link Between Worlds, while I am not even halfway through, has proven to be a phenomenally deep game. I just hope I have more time over the next month to play it.
The Little Lady has taken over LEGO Marvel Superheroes, although I got pretty far before she decided she was going to play it all of the time. Again, I wrote at length about this earlier, so I will spare the details now, but the depth of the game continues to amaze me. I could wander around LEGO New York City for HOURS and still not find everything, and that's a good thing. The Little Lady has also taken over Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and thankfully, she is no longer leaving all of her stuff lying around town. As the mayor of Koholint, my town in Animal Crossing, I want my village looking immaculately clean. She probably wouldn't have cleaned up the town except I pointed out that, if you go to the Mayor's Office, my secretary points out how absolutely annoyed all of the villagers are about it. Thanks, Nintendo, for making a game that encourages me to obsessively organize things - that almost makes up for changing my Mario Kart strategy.
Movies
Nothing much going on here. We have been having The Little Lady watch the original Star Wars trilogy, and yes, we'll probably show her the prequel trilogy because it is, after all, canon. Then we can take her to see the new one, whether she's still living with us or not. I continue to love how interested she is in virtually everything - it was so easy to get her into Star Wars and keep her interested. She still asks me sometimes why Obi-Wan didn't tell Luke the truth about Darth Vader. She seems very annoyed about that.
We went and saw Inside-Out and both my wife and I bawled while the girls were simply non-plussed by (spoiler alert) the realization that yes, some important memories can be sad and our emotions get more complicated as we enter our teenage years. Pixar's slogan should be "let us entertain your kids while you bawl your eyes out." That damn Lava short-movie didn't help - I honestly thought they would give us a sad ending to that volcano's tale for a few seconds, and thought, "Geez, Pixar, I thought you wouldn't stoop this low after the first ten minutes of Up." Don't worry, guys - it's Pixar, it ends happily, although you still might cry.
Books
After finishing Stephen King's It, I read the not-so-nerdy Faithful, the story about the 2004 Boston Red Sox in which Stephen King was a co-writer. The Red Sox are my one truly non-nerdy interest, although I needed to read Faithful to remind myself that I am still a Red Sox fan after such a horrible season up until now.
It is a good book if you think about it like a short story collection, but overall, it's a mess of missed opportunities and silly storytelling shortcuts, all in an effort to force out some sort of epic story even though there really isn't any need for it. Characters like Henry Bowers (a truly amazing King villain) and Beverly's father (King knows exactly how to take abusive, horrible people and make them somehow more disgusting) are far more terrifying than It, and the backstories and the little vignettes King tells are often far more fascinating than the main story. I want to like this book, but it's such a mess that I have to consider it one of the worst King outings I've read, probably the first one I have read that disappointed me (I haven't even come close to reading them all, and if it matters, my favorites so far are The Stand, The Shining and The Dead Zone).
I am now reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, something I am told I should have read long ago. As a nerd, it's probably criminal that I haven't read it yet, and so far, I am pretty impressed. Some of the comedy within it feels twinged with arrogance on the part of the author, a sort of "oh wow, look at how clever I am" sort of feeling, but enough of it is quite entertaining that I am continuing to read it each night before going to sleep. It's part of an anthology with three other books by Adams, so I'll probably read those too.
Coming Up in August...
My wife and I will see Ant-Man at some point, and I am sure I will just throw all of my wonderful feelings about the Marvel cinematic universe down in a blog entry at some point afterwards. I will continue to read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as well, hopefully getting through it by the end of the month, and I want desperately to work harder on The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, in the hopes that I can write a Game Profile about it. More Dexter is on tap as well, perhaps allowing me to write an entry about how well it humanizes such a dark character, and adds darkness to characters that are otherwise good. I have also been thinking a lot about online gaming and what it has done to the social aspect of gaming. I have an opinion that is probably in the minority of opinions on online gaming, but hey, I'm going to throw it out there anyway.
July was a hectic month from a non-nerdy standpoint, helping our little lady get through having her tonsils out and adjusting to another foster child in the house. We've also had some pesky visitors in the form of lice and mice, so I have been busy and will continue to be busy. Here is what I did manage to get in, though:
TV
The Little Lady and I have been working through Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. As of today, we have gotten about 10 episodes into season 2. We've witnessed the Avengers tackle Loki and his invasion of Asgard, the Kree, and right now, the Skrull invasion. The cartoon is epic, far more than the movies ever will be, so for anyone that wants to get into the Marvel universe, this is an excellent place to start (others might suggest the comics, naturally, but if you are like me and comics aren't your thing, then check out the cartoon). I wish they worked harder to get more female superheroes into the mix - we've recently been introduced to Ms. Marvel, a strong female superhero, and Wasp has been there since the beginning, but she fits too many ditzy female stereotypes to really count as a solid female superhero. The comic relief is consistently good, and the series does a good job of recalling intertwining storylines that began at the beginning of the series. Despite the complexity of the storylines, The Little Lady has had no problems getting what's going on until recently, when she got thoroughly confused on who was a Skrull and who was not.
In other TV nerdiness, Umberto MacJay and I are attempting to watch every season of Dexter and rank each and every episode. We spent one glorious afternoon discussing our rating mechanisms and how we are going to rank each episode and present it to all of you wonderful readers. The entire list will probably be available on this blog sometime in the Fall, but don't hold us too closely to that - this is a significant undertaking, and I myself am only about halfway through season 2. I have seen every season except for the final season, which fans were not crazy about, but I am going to withhold judgement until I see it for myself.
Video Games
Where to begin here? I have been playing a wide variety of games over the course of the month, mainly because whenever I finally get time to sit down and play one, it's been so long since I have actually played anything. As a result, I've done mostly gaming without any semblance of a story - Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. I already wrote at length about Super Mario 3D World and will spare you anymore details here (no, I have not yet beaten that STUPID OBNOXIOUS RIDICULOUS final level). Mario Kart 8 continues to be a challenge with the addition of 200cc, a ridiculously fast romp through the levels that forces you to change your entire racing strategy. It's like playing a brand new game after being so accustomed to 150cc and the Mirror tracks. I am still missing a 3-star, gold trophy on one of the Mirror tracks, and got 2 stars on one of them (I HATE not getting 3 stars - I usually quit as soon as I don't get first in a race as a result). But, I have enjoyed trying 200cc and silently cursing Nintendo for forcing me to change the strategy that I used over the course of an entire 8-game series.
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is out and about again in my house because I purchased all of the DLC. Ryu has been a fun addition, and I have enjoyed whipping out all of my old Street Fighter moves when I use him (although really, I usually fall back on using the B button to use all of the special moves to ensure my victory). I wish they had added more locations in the new DLC - I miss the stages in Brawl and Melee so much, the newer versions haven't quite lived up to those - but overall, the game is still a blast to play in a living room full of people.
I spent a lot of the beginning of the month playing The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. It's easily one of the strongest entries in the Zelda franchise, and perhaps, at the moment at least, is my favorite of the overhead, 2D Zelda titles (not that it is really 2D, with its gorgeous 3D visuals). I am super glad they ditched the requirement of using the touch screen to control Link. I never finished Phantom Hourglass as a result - my hand would get cramped up eventually, and I always ended up doing things I didn't want to do eventually, because of the odd controls. A Link Between Worlds, while I am not even halfway through, has proven to be a phenomenally deep game. I just hope I have more time over the next month to play it.
The Little Lady has taken over LEGO Marvel Superheroes, although I got pretty far before she decided she was going to play it all of the time. Again, I wrote at length about this earlier, so I will spare the details now, but the depth of the game continues to amaze me. I could wander around LEGO New York City for HOURS and still not find everything, and that's a good thing. The Little Lady has also taken over Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and thankfully, she is no longer leaving all of her stuff lying around town. As the mayor of Koholint, my town in Animal Crossing, I want my village looking immaculately clean. She probably wouldn't have cleaned up the town except I pointed out that, if you go to the Mayor's Office, my secretary points out how absolutely annoyed all of the villagers are about it. Thanks, Nintendo, for making a game that encourages me to obsessively organize things - that almost makes up for changing my Mario Kart strategy.
Movies
Nothing much going on here. We have been having The Little Lady watch the original Star Wars trilogy, and yes, we'll probably show her the prequel trilogy because it is, after all, canon. Then we can take her to see the new one, whether she's still living with us or not. I continue to love how interested she is in virtually everything - it was so easy to get her into Star Wars and keep her interested. She still asks me sometimes why Obi-Wan didn't tell Luke the truth about Darth Vader. She seems very annoyed about that.
We went and saw Inside-Out and both my wife and I bawled while the girls were simply non-plussed by (spoiler alert) the realization that yes, some important memories can be sad and our emotions get more complicated as we enter our teenage years. Pixar's slogan should be "let us entertain your kids while you bawl your eyes out." That damn Lava short-movie didn't help - I honestly thought they would give us a sad ending to that volcano's tale for a few seconds, and thought, "Geez, Pixar, I thought you wouldn't stoop this low after the first ten minutes of Up." Don't worry, guys - it's Pixar, it ends happily, although you still might cry.
Books
After finishing Stephen King's It, I read the not-so-nerdy Faithful, the story about the 2004 Boston Red Sox in which Stephen King was a co-writer. The Red Sox are my one truly non-nerdy interest, although I needed to read Faithful to remind myself that I am still a Red Sox fan after such a horrible season up until now.
It is a good book if you think about it like a short story collection, but overall, it's a mess of missed opportunities and silly storytelling shortcuts, all in an effort to force out some sort of epic story even though there really isn't any need for it. Characters like Henry Bowers (a truly amazing King villain) and Beverly's father (King knows exactly how to take abusive, horrible people and make them somehow more disgusting) are far more terrifying than It, and the backstories and the little vignettes King tells are often far more fascinating than the main story. I want to like this book, but it's such a mess that I have to consider it one of the worst King outings I've read, probably the first one I have read that disappointed me (I haven't even come close to reading them all, and if it matters, my favorites so far are The Stand, The Shining and The Dead Zone).
I am now reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, something I am told I should have read long ago. As a nerd, it's probably criminal that I haven't read it yet, and so far, I am pretty impressed. Some of the comedy within it feels twinged with arrogance on the part of the author, a sort of "oh wow, look at how clever I am" sort of feeling, but enough of it is quite entertaining that I am continuing to read it each night before going to sleep. It's part of an anthology with three other books by Adams, so I'll probably read those too.
Coming Up in August...
My wife and I will see Ant-Man at some point, and I am sure I will just throw all of my wonderful feelings about the Marvel cinematic universe down in a blog entry at some point afterwards. I will continue to read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as well, hopefully getting through it by the end of the month, and I want desperately to work harder on The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, in the hopes that I can write a Game Profile about it. More Dexter is on tap as well, perhaps allowing me to write an entry about how well it humanizes such a dark character, and adds darkness to characters that are otherwise good. I have also been thinking a lot about online gaming and what it has done to the social aspect of gaming. I have an opinion that is probably in the minority of opinions on online gaming, but hey, I'm going to throw it out there anyway.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)