And they call me an Engineer

There are those who might say I am jumping on the band wagon here, but I’m jumping.

Last night, I saw the latest installment in the Batman series of movies, The Dark Night. I went in expecting a lot because I hadn’t heard a single bad review. Usually there is plenty of criticism for super hero (comic book) type movies.

But this movie lived up to the hype.  The entire 152 minutes is packed with action or significant dialog. Not to mention one of the coolest stunts I’ve seen in a movie (the semi truck).  I came out of the IMAX theater with sore muscles.  Not from bad theater chairs, but because I was tensing my body the entire time.

Critics have applauded the work done by the late Heath Ledger for his role as the Joker.  At first, I didn’t see what all the fuss was about, but as the film progressed into the later half, it became apparent that he did an amazing job.  As he walked out of the hospital, I realized that he nailed the role.  Is the performance deserving of an Oscar as some have proposed?  It’s surely worth a nomination.

The one let down was the part of Rachel Dawes, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. I didn’t feel anything for the character in this film.  The role was much better handled by Katie Holmes in the previous film, Batman Begins.  Maybe it was the script, but it just didn’t work for me.

All in all, a great film.  Definitely on my top 10 list.

Some books are great because of the characters. Others are great because of the cool adventure or through fun mystery. And still others which amaze the mind through great concepts.

There are few authors who successfully combine all these elements into a single novel as well as Orson Scott Card. He pulls it off again in Pastwatch: The Redemption of Chistopher Columbus.

In a distant future, an organization called Pastwatch has developed technology to examine the past in detail.  Through a device called the TruSite II, they can follow time lines and individuals through their lives to learn about the past (and of course learn from the past).

While watching an incident during the Spanish conquest of Mesoamerica, one of the more passionate and brilliant Pastwatch researches, Tagiri, learns that people from the past can sometimes “see” the watchers as they are watching the past.  This of course prompts the researches to believe that they might be able to change the past.  If they can communicate with the people of the past, they can change history.

In an effort to prevent slavery in America, Tagiri sets out to prevent Christopher Columbus from making his voyage west.  Eventually, it is learned that Columbus’ discovery of American was set in motion by a different historical time line in which a similar Pastwatch organization sent a holographic projection into the past to convince Columbus that God wants him to sail west.  This confirms that they can send objects (and perhaps people) into the past.  After learning that human existence is very much threatened because of all the past conflict, Pastwatch begins an effort to send individuals into the past to try to “fix” history and prevent or alter the events that lead to their catastrophic situation.

In a combination of science fiction and historical drama, Card explores the atrocities brought upon the Native American people and provides an alternate possibility of how things perhaps should have happened.  He shows how simple changes could have completely changed the political and social landscape throughout history. By turning Columbus from a gold-seeking pirate into a true Christian with dreams of world peace and unity, history is changed from being dominated by conflict and war into a peaceful and unifying dream.

An incredible story with intrigue, mystery, great characters, fantastic concepts, love, action (you even get some swashbuckling) and interesting social aspects.

Definitely and A+!

A humorous poem by Orson Scott Card (I got a kick out of it):

Ode on Hillary in Bosnia

by Orson Scott Card

“We landed under sniper fire!
We ran for cover, terrified!
The bullets flew around my head!
I thought for sure that I was dead!”

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Orson Scott Card (who, if you count the number of blog postings I have on an individual, one might assume is my hero) has published an article indicating his support for Barack Obama… in the Democratic nomination.

Ok, so he doesn’t really say that he supports Obama.  However, he very much defends Obama’s handling of the recent “scandal” with Reverand Wright.  Card made a very poignant argument for how Obama separated himself from Wright’s comments, but not the person.

Do you want as President the kind of person who would deny and abandon his closest friends in order to win that political office?

Very well said, Mr. Card.

Further down the article, he analyzes the senior theses of both Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama.  A very interesting read with solid insight into who these two ladies are.  One a former First Lady.  The other hoping to be the next First Lady.

I highly recommend reading the article.

While flipping through channels today, I noticed a miniseries by The History Channel called “Life After People.“  They had been running some ads over the past several weeks with an interesting line that went something like this… Welcome to Earth: Population 0.

It intrigued me and so I flipped to it. After just a few minutes into it, I realized that the show wasn’t all scientific, but was almost all political.  And it was just a human race bash.  I didn’t watch much, but the 10 minutes I did watch were rather disappointing and more to the point — disturbing.

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War of Gifts is a step back into the “Enderverse” and takes place as Ender Wiggin is relatively new in Battle School.  Card returns to this powerful world with his understanding of humanity and Ender’s uncanny ability to know people and what they truly need.

The story follows an extremely intelligent young boy (Zeck) who is born to an extreme evangelical preacher who “purifies” him by beating him while preaching complete pacifism.  He also teaches the boy that Santa Claus is the devil and to never participate in Christmas activities.  All religious worship is prohibited in battle school to minimize distraction from the goal of defeating the Formics. The Battle School administrators use this rule to attempt to force Zech into fighting and training for battle. But Zech refuses (based on religious beliefs) and simply becomes a non-combative observer in their battle drills.

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If you can’t see the video below, view the full posting. Don’t forget to click the “Continue ->” in the bottom right.

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Dune is one of those books that everyone, even non-sci-fi fans, are somewhat familiar with. If you haven’t read the book, then you have seen the movie. I vaguely remember seeing the 1984 movie, but never read the book, so I figured I would take the opportunity when I saw it come through Audible.com’s new releases.

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Wow… Orson Scott Card thrashes on the Republican Right in his latest article on immigration. Check it out and see for yourself. I think he’s tired of trying to be logical because they aren’t listening. He’s just tossing dirt-clods now. Although he makes good points throughout.

When I see a new Orson Scott Card book pop-up on Audible.com, I snatch it up and give it a listen. So when Folk of the Fringe came up, I recognized it as a suggestion from my brother and was rather excited about it.

Folk of the Fringe is actually a collection of themed short stories similar to The Worthing Saga. They all take place in a post-world-war-three era where nuclear and biological weapons have destroyed a majority of the United States population. All infrastructure is gone along with communication and government. Those who have survived have to create their own government and salvage the old infrastructure.

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