William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope hits stores

William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope is a thing. Someone thought it would be funny to convert the first Star Wars movie into a William Shakespeare style play.  Old style prose is included, including the rather annoying "o'er".  It took me years to learn "o'er" is a contraction for "over".  Really?  Just say the "v".  It's not like you are actually shortening the word by not saying the "v".  It's still two fully pronounced syllables.  But I digress.

The book is is pretty funny (including the use of o'er). They really nailed the R2D2 dialogue!

The River of No Return book review

The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Though the concepts introduced in this book are an inventive twist on the time travel idea, the character dialog and motivations are dreadful.  In this story, there are competing time travelling organizations struggling for control of time travel throughout human history.  Nick, an English nobleman who fought in Spain in the early 1800's finds himself in the 21st Century just before he is about to die.  This is the story of his struggle to dance between these two organizations while sorting out his own role both in the 21th Century and the 19th Century.
I did enjoy reading much of the book as the plot unfolded, but found myself suffering through some dreadful character interactions. Some of this was due to character development that was somewhat engaging, but drowned out by the chorus inauthentic thoughts and experiences. The leading male character, Nick, was a noblemen from the 19th Century and only spent 10 years in the 21st Century, but somehow seemed more in tune with 20th Century social and entertainment elements than us normal people that lived through that time period, even though he did not. His experience with the 20th Century would've have been more authentic if it had been taken from the approach of a child growing up in the Aughties (2000-2010). Also, the characters of British origin often felt more like Americans, often using Americanism and seemed both out of place globally and chonologically.  Additionally, the writing of the characters while in the 19th Century felt more like rejects from Jane Austin novels rather than real people.
This book appears to be the first of a new series. Will I look forward to the next book? Eh. The author has to polish her skills of writing for characters with more authenticity, as her first attempt to do so is a distraction from an otherwise good concept and plot.


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Radioactive, radioactive radio edit controversy

There's a bit of a controversy about a popular song right now called Radioactive by Imagine Dragons.  There's a lot of complaints by fans who bought the album about how the song quality on the album is inferior to what's been playing on the radio and in trailers for movies and on commercials for new TV series.  (Seriously, this song is everywhere right now.)  The complaints are pretty consistent by fans, not even haters.

Distortion was noticeable on digital format as well as CD. Very poor quality on car stereo really drives home the point.

Somehow, producer Alex da Kid thought that intentionally introducing that awful, cheap sounding distortion (several tracks, most notably beginning on 'Radioactive'), was somehow "artistic". What a stupid idea.

What's this about distortion?  The bass in the song Radioactive has been distorted to sound like subwoofers maxed out.  It's a rough and gravelly sound that doesn't sound good on good stereo systems (such as the stereo systems in the average car these days).  I got the CD, and I agree with the criticism.  It's OK, but not good.

Theres something called the radio edit version of the song, which I like, but it also seems like it's distorted too much too.

The Ice Dragon and the Blue Rose (my first original work!)

Announcing the release of my first electronically published book (ebook) on Amazon.com called Decide My Quest: The Ice Dragon and the Blue Rose. This is an interactive adventure where you are a young man who must battle the Ice Dragon and find the Blue Rose in order to marry the Princess.

The new innovation of the Decide My Quest (TM) series is you get to see events in your quest from different points of view based on decisions you make. The challenge in writing an interactive adventure in electronic form was providing a method to allow the reader to make decisions on which actions to take in the story. This is accomplished by providing links at the end of each chapter. You can use the normal interface to click on those links, similar to how you click on the chapter links in an ebook's List of Contents.

This book was fun to write, and I hope fun to read and navigate. It is meant primarily for younger readers (9 and up), but older readers will hopefully appreciate it as well. It's $2.99 on Amazon.com. That's a bargin for a book of its lenght. Similar style printed interactive adventures cost much more for less story.

Alaska Cruise Day 7: Not Alaska (B.C.)

Day 7 of our Alaska cruise was highlighted by a visit to Victoria, British Columbia. Many people don't realize that the name Columbia was used by our North and South American forefathers to name a bit of land that they really didn't have a name for. Columbia is the "poetic" name for the Americas. There's also Washington, District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.) and the actual country of Columbia.

Victoria is a very nice city with many interesting buildings, good food and they freely take U.S. dollars (1:1 with the Canadian dollar these days).





My In-laws liked it a lot. We had a relaxing time, just walking around without too much of a schedule to worry about. We had a great dinner at a local steakhouse. There was this Celtic themed store with some of the highest quality clothes I've seen (and the prices to match). I even have a video around somewhere of Darth Vader playing the violin (street performer).

The vibe in Victoria is definately different than Vancouver, B.C.

One of the reasons we chose to take a cruise with Norwegian is that the cruise starts and finishes in Seattle, WA (within the borders of USA). Many cruises start in Seattle, but then end in Victoria. That means we'd have to take an international flight home; a painful experience which I am always more than happy to avoid.

So, even though Norwegian wasn't everything we expected it to be, it was everything it needed to be. I guess that's not a great endorsement, huh.

Overall, the trip was enjoyable. Some pluses (many of which cost more $$$) and some minuses (many of which were part of the cruise package for no additional $$$). We did our trip to Alaska. We did our first cruise (and prolly last, at least for a long while). We took my In-laws on a big vacation and had a lot of quality time with them. And, I got to see my best friend and his family before and after the cruise.

Please see the full Alaska Cruise article list.

Second cross-country road trip in 2011: Day 6 (slow start, comments about various hotels)

Our sixth day of travel across America was marked by a late start. Though our trip from St. Louis, MO to Columbus, OH was one of the shorter drives, we didn't get into Columbus until 5PM or so. We didn't do much in Columbus. Actually, we didn't do anything other than get a meal at Chipotle and watch some TV in the motel, er "hotel" room. That's the problem when trying to plan ahead for a trip in cities that you don't know. Finding good hotels for a good price in a good area of town is very hard, even with online reviews.

Our hotel in Lake Havasu was spacious, but dingy.

The original hotel I booked in Albuquerque was in a very sketchy neighborhood, so we opted to cancel the reservation and stay at a Homewood Suites near the airport instead. Homewood is very nice and does accept pets, though for a very hefty fee of $100. The average (even at other nice hotels) was $25, so $100 is a bit over the top; particularly since you can just drop your dog off at the nearest Petsmart for about $30 overnight lodging, and that includes one-on-one human attention and a free meal. Note to Homewood, lower your pet fee!

The motel, er, again I mean "hotel" we stayed at in Oklahoma City, OK was also very sketchy and dingy.

The lesson I'm slowly learning is to stay away from the less expensive nationwide hotel brands that are in the big cities. Spend a little more to get a decent place, and try to pick towns that are a bit outside of the area, as smaller outlining towns tend to have higher quality versions of the nationwide hotel brands.

Second cross-country road trip in 2011: Day 5 (St. Louis)

Although the drive from Oklahoma to Missouri was fairly uneventful, we did take time to stretch our legs. Toebzilla was happy to be in Missouri, or maybe just happy to have plenty of green grass to take care of his business. We drove through the state all the way to St. Louis. Allie has never been to St. Louis before. My first time here was actually back in June of this same year. We dropped off Toebzilla at a nearby Petsmart to be sitted for a few hours while Allie and I had a date night to ourselves for the first time on this trip. We dined at Zia's on The Hill. Located in a quiet Italian neighborhood of St. Louis, simply called The Hill, this restaurant was a pleasant surprize. Eating almost nothing but junk food for most of our road trip, good Italian food was a welcome change from all the fast food we had been consuming throughout much of our journey. Overall, the food was very good. (See Yelp for my full review.) Our hotel was The Cheshire. This is a "British author themed" hotel with rustic atmosphere, yet modernized appeal within the rooms. The bonus is that this hotel is very pet friendly. They even provide Beggin' Strips, doggie bowls, doggie bed and other amenities for your dogs. (Only the Beggin' Strips is complimentary. Everything else should be treated as belonging to the room.) The Cheshire is a comfortable place to rest your head. The only drawback are the old style windows which let a lot of heat escape the room. This means you'll need to keep the heater running on cold evenings. That's not bad for the guess, per se, but it is wasteful when taking the entire hotel into account. Overall, I recommend staying here if you are in the St. Louis area. Allie, Toebzilla and I visited the Gateway Arch later in the evening. Though the weather was clear, the temperature was very cold. We took a few photos, then quickly left to return to our cosie hotel room.

Never order a Mojito on a plane

I had a particularly bad plane trip early this year. After multiple delays and cancellations, I was finally on my way home. Food was being offered complimentary on my flight, but not the alcohol, of course.

Looking at the food menu, I saw that Mojitos were offered. I let out a brief private chuckle at the very thought of a flight attendant trying to make a Mojito in flight. Mojitos are one of the most labor intensive cocktails, as they require crushing of mint leafs within the glass. How would any of this be accomplished on a plane? So, much to the surprize of others around me, I ordered a Mojito on a plane, just to see what I would actually get.

I was handed the following, along with the same plastic cup you get if you order soda or water.



My travel day had been particularly bad (more than most on the plane) so I give the flight attendant a quick sad story to convince him to throw in an extra Bacardi minibar bottle. A very small consolation for a very crappy day, but nice nonetheless.

That single shot of Bacardi and the bag of mint flavored lime juice was $11....and that's with me "mixing" the drink myself. Without the mint leafs, it would be debated that this was actually a Mojito at all. So, the moral of this story is to never order a Mojito on a plane.

In flight maps

Many airlines have touch screens on the back of each seat. One of the tools to view on those screens is an actively updated map of where the plane's position is shown along its flight path. This usually includes data such as "ground speed", "distance to go", "altitude" and "outside temperature".

Ground speed is useful, because when dividing it into distance to go, the calculation well show how many hours remain for the flight. Altitude is interesting, but not so useful. The only metric that doesn't really have any value at all is outside temperature. Why show this? Am I going to open a window and pop my head out for a breathe of fresh air? No. The only function this serves is as a reminder of the cabin's warmth (even if air is a bit on the cool side).

What other useless information could be included? How about outside air pressure, so we can be reminded that the cabin pressure is moderately comfortable? Instead of altitude, why not provide "distance from outer space" to remind us of just how close we are to entering orbit?

Something that might be more useful is if the map provided information on the destination, like the "current ground temperature" so I know to pull the jacket out of my carry-on luggage.

BTW, I'm ranting this from the airplane. I'm glad wi-fi is now being included on many flights.

4th Annual Taste of Downtown Marlborough (and 1st Annual Brewfest)

I was driving to a Diary Queen near downtown Marlborough yesternight when I saw a rather small and unimposing sign that advertized something called 4th Annual Taste of Downtown Marlborough. Yesterday was Sunday, so I thought I had just missed an interesting event. No so. This event was held this evening (Monday). It seems a little unusual to have an event like this on a Monday night (and bad timing to have it the same night as game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals in which the Bruins must win or lose completely), but it didn't seem to deter the crowds from coming.

I'm very new to the area, so this was the perfect event to see tons of restaurants in the Marlborough Olde Town area at one time, all for only $20. Overall, I think I was able to sample tastes from a couple dozen places. Some places I might come back to later this year. Other places I might not consider again. To each their own.

The 1st Annual Brewfest portion of this event cost an extra $5. There were a couple dozen beer vendors giving out 1oz samples of their offerings. Some of the beers just aren't suited to my taste. I had one that tasted like I was sucking on a 10 week old lemon, and not in a good way (if a good way could even be imagined). Other beers were good. I enjoyed some of the beers from Brooklyn Brewery. It was impressive that a New York company would show its face at a Massachusetts event.

There were lots of long lines to sample the various restaurants. Later in the evening, it was a little easier to get samples, but some places had run out by then.


There was also various live acts, ranging from the classic to the drum beat based. One rock group played Turning Japanese and then She Bop right after. I couldn't help but grin when I saw parents dancing with their kids to those particular songs. Sometimes you have to wonder if people know what those songs are supposedly about.


There are also some interesting old buildings.

It was interesting to see what this town of Marlborough has to offer. I have some ideas of which places to visit in the near future.