Craig's Blog of Destiny

As I’ve always said, I don’t believe in cats, or dogs or pets.  That means there can be no accounting from me for this new resident in our household.  This is indeed monumental.

Ok, it’s been the Christmas of making snowflakes….  Here’s a sampling of the ones I’ve made.  Thanks to Randy Miller for steering us to the site.  You can make your own at

 http://snowflakes.lookandfeel.com/

Thanks to Roger for bringing this to our attention!

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – After months of bitter legal wrangling, Peter Jackson, New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc have agreed to make two movies based on the book “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien.

In a statement Tuesday, the companies said Jackson, the director of the smash hit “Lord of the Rings” movies, and producer Fran Walsh will executive produce both a “Hobbit” movie and a sequel, but Jackson was not named as the director.

“We don’t have a director yet,” said a New Line spokeswoman.

The movies will be made simultaneously starting in 2009, and a tentative release date has been set for 2010 for the first film and 2011 for the second.

My father originally introduced me to Michael Crichton way back in the early 70’s.  Dad recommended that I read The Andromeda Strain and I’ve enjoyed reading Crichton ever since.  I do think The Andromeda Strain remains very near the top of the list of his best works; however, I don’t believe I’ve ever been disappointed.  Next is at least consistent in that way.

I suppose that part of what he is trying to say in Next is that the world of genetic research is mostly unregulated and out of control.  He does that very well, but all that out of control material makes the novel a little scattered.  He does have a tendency to try to tell a number of stories within some of his novels, and thus often leaves me with the thought that I would have liked to have more of an account of fewer characters.  That’s definitely the case with Next, though in fairness he does sort of tie some of the stories together in the end.

I would recommend Next for anyone that enjoys reading, though with the caveat that it’s probably not his best work.

Do you ever notice people standing in the card aisle laughing out loud?  That was Kris and I when we saw this card at Target the other day:

Another tour!!!!

From Rush’s website:

 After a hugely successful 2007 run, Rush are pleased to announce they will extend their Snakes & Arrows World Tour into 2008. The band will begin rehearsals in March to revamp the set list before kicking off the tour with their first ever appearance in San Juan, Puerto Rico in April…  2008 will see Rush tour in over 40 cities throughout the United States and Canada making stops in many where they haven’t performed in well over a decade including: Orlando, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Austin, Jacksonville and Winnipeg to name a few. Along the way, Rush will play new venues in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and Seattle and will revisit some familiar ones in Boston, Washington and Charlotte amongst others.

For the complete press release click below:

Rush Press Release 

 Also, RUSH has been nominated for a 2008 Grammy in the Best Rock Instrumental Performance category for “Malignant Narcissism.”

“Malignant Narcissism” from Rush

[coolplayer width=”400″ height=”150″ autoplay=”false” loop=”false” download=”hide” ]Malignant Narcissism
[/coolplayer]

Christmas Greetings to All!  Just click below:

Merry Christmas from Craig, Kristin, Sam and J’Neil

Isaac Asimov “is perhaps the best known – and certainly the best loved – of all SF authors” says the back of my copy of Foundation and Earth.  Well, not by this reader.  I find his writing to be overly simple and lacking in development.  Foundation and Earth was no exception.

While it may be that I would feel more magnanimous towards this book had I read the four Foundation books that precede it, I doubt it.  I can’t imagine that I would have been able to stay with them.  But I may have been more predisposed to some of the ideas of the book, and that’s about all this book has: ideas.  There is very little story, the characters are stiff and undeveloped and the vista of humanity 20,000 years into the future is paltry.  Because there’s so very little in the way of story to give away, I don’t consider it a spoiler to say that the end of this book is nothing more than a rehash of Asimov’s venerated robot rules.  I didn’t feel warm and fuzzy about them in I, Robot and I don’t feel warm and fuzzy about them now.  The book also suffers from the Captain Kirk syndrome:  if there’s a female on a planet, a sexual encounter is requisite.

This is one I’m glad to put back on the shelf.

Here’s J”Neil’s answers to the American Express questions: